Forever His
by Lass of the Lake
Summary: Sydney LeHaye has just moved to La Push, and is attending the Rez school. She sticks out, but she's okay with that. And, being as unusual as she is, she stumbles onto the tribe's secrets, and along the way, falls for one of the pack. Paul/Oc.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I know I don't like Twilight, and I know you can probably tell by the way I'll end up slamming any mention of Bella or Edward that I may have to make, but I do, however, love the werewolves in Twilight; they're my favorite characters and the only reason I wanted to see New Moon what so ever. But there are basically no Paul stories, and I love angry men, because I can outdo them every time.**

**So let's see how badly I can screw this up.**

**Oh, and since I will never, not once ever again do a disclaimer for this story, I should probably do it now so I don't get sued; that wouldn't look good on me, now would it?**

**Disclaimer: I, Jassabella, hold no right to any of the characters in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga. I do not claim them in any shape or form. I do, however, own my OCs and the plot-line for this story.**

**Songs:**

**According to You - Orianthi  
Bad Romance - Lady GaGa  
Welcome to my Life - Simple Plan  
She Wolf - Shakira  
Break Your Heart - Taio Cruz**

Chapter 1

Goodbye, Hello

* * *

Let me just say that being as pale as they come in Texas sucks! And then, having the black hair that makes you look paler still, and to the semblance of a corpse, yeah, that's really a yummy icing on the cake of my life! But, things would soon be getting worse still because I, along with my new parents, Jed and Missy, would be moving to and living on an Indian reservation in Washington. I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb, and everyone will figure that I'm adopted because Jed is half Native American and Missy is full blooded. They both have that gorgeous sun-bronzed skin and straight raven hair. I, on the other hand, am chalky, blue-eyed and dead looking.

Yeah, everything's peachy keen.

The upside is that I actually used to live in Washington in a near-by town called Forks, and my mom had managed to track down one of my childhood friends, Mike Newton. He's actually a couple years older than I am - few more months and I wouldn't have needed to be adopted - and soon getting married, as I hear it. Well, good for him.

I have only had a grand total of four boyfriends, two of which cheated on me, and one that tried to take advantage of me. The last and most recent one was a total sweet-heart, and I honestly still love him, but with me moving and him going off to Yale, well, it's just hard. So we've said our good-byes, and I think I'm ready to move on. _Lie_. Alright, maybe not so much, but I'm ready to let him go.

But I do love flying, and music, which is why, as I sit in one of the many window seats in an airplane, my ear buds stuck in my ears, I'm happy as a clam. The loud base-lines and drum beats are ringing through my skull and numbing me to the suckiness of what's about to happen.

Beside me, Missy is reading a Cosmo magazine - which she will no doubt give to me when she's finished - and Jed is in the aisle seat, looking about as pale as any native American can; he hates flying and we've been on the plane for a while. I don't call them mom and dad much yet, but I do love them. I'm eternally grateful that they chose me to be their child, and not a more appealing, younger child. First time I called Missy mom, she squealed, embraced me and took me shopping for some new jeans. Which I so didn't mind.

But the buckle up sign flashed on in front of me, and the annoying, sugary sweet voice of the flight attendant filtered through the air. "Please fasten your seat belts as we descend into Seattle. Thank you for flying with us today." Yeah, thanks for making me gag on your voice. I hate flight attendants; they're all so freaking fake. My real dad, before he died, had advised me to never trust a flight attendant - he should know, he was a pilot. And I felt that his wisdom still held some value, even if he was no longer here. He went down in 9/11, when I was nine. I'd never had much contact with my mom, and chose to keep it that way, even after she came searching for me with her new husband, Darren. Nice man, but even less my dad than Jed was.

I pretty much tuned out the rest of the ride out, including the plummeting of my stomach as we descended. I didn't open my eyes again until I felt us touch down. Then I turned to look at Jed, who wasn't looking too well. Missy looked sympathetically at him - Dad, I forced myself to think - and patted his back comfortingly.

We grabbed our carry-ons out of the bins, and walked out of the plane Je-Dad taking a big gulp of air as he went. I honestly felt bad for him. He hated flying so much, and he would never get the feelings that I got when I was on a plane; the feeling of freedom and a closeness to someone I could never be close to again. He'd never get past his nerve-wracking-vomit-producing fear.

We went to baggage claim, and, as was customary, Mom's bag got lost. My bright blue suitcase and Dad's black suitcase and duffel made it through just fine, but my mom, well, she just has really bad luck when it comes to baggage claim. I've been on three flights with them, and not once have we actually been able to find her things. It drives them both nuts, but I think they're starting to get used to it. But the upside is, Mike and his fiance, Jessica were supposed to meet us out front. I don't really remember him, but he, apparently, remembers me.

It's dark when we finally get outside - Mom's bags found and good - and I can hardly see the stars over the city lights, but I'm used to that by now. But, I spotted a guy, tall with blond hair, who had his arm wrapped around a short girl with brown hair. He looked directly at me, and broke out into an overly eager grin. "Sydney Christina Afton."

I smiled back, a little less eager than he, but still kinda excited by now. "Sydney Christina LeHaye now. I'm guessing you'd be Mike."

He laughed a little bit, and Jessica, safely tucked under his arm, looking sort of dollish in her size, smiled as well. "Yeah," he said, not really as a confirmation; just a yeah. "Yeah, that's me. I'm guessing you don't remember me, huh? Been a while." He shrugged, looking like it wasn't really anything, but he seemed the puppy-dog type, so it probably hurt him to some degree that I couldn't dredge up even one memory of him.

"Yeah, it has." I agreed, rocking back on my heels.

There was a short silence, but Dad broke it easily enough. "Thanks for coming out here to welcome us, Mike, Jessica, but we best be driving up to the house now. I'm sure Missy's cousin, Sarah, is waiting most eagerly for us. Everyone wants a slice of Syd." He put his arm around my shoulder, and I took comfort in his embrace. "So we'll see you around."

"It was nice to meet you," I hear Mi-Mom say before we headed off to find the car that Sarah and her husband James had brought down for us. Apparently, Sarah was very excited to meet me; she and Mom had grown up together, and she was very, very eager to meet her daughter. Namely, me. And she wanted to introduce me to her son and his friends. I smell a match maker. But I've seen a picture of her son, and he's kind of yummy, so maybe I'll deal.

We finally managed to find our little, silver Audi, and dad dumped all our crap in trunk and we began the very long drive from Seattle to the Quileute Res.

--

I must have dozed on the way over, because the next time I opened my eyes, there were no bright lights except for the ones in a restaurant that we were just passing. I sleepily wiped my eyes, and pushed myself up in the seat, trying to find a hint as to where we were. I'd almost forgotten we were in Washington when I saw the sign for Forks High. Yeah, I wouldn't be going there. I'd be going to the Res. school, because that's where I live, so that's where I qualify to go. It doesn't matter that I don't have so much as a shred of Native American blood in me. Apparently, they don't really care.

I realized that Miss-Mom had fallen asleep to, and laughed as my dad concentrated on the roads a little harder than necessary. He looked back at me with a grin. "Awake, are we, sleeping beauty?" He chuckled, and only then did I realize that head-lights were flooding through are back window, because, at that moment, whoever was behind us, turned. "Wave to Mike and Jessica. They've been tailing us since Seattle." I did wave - slightly, and with little enthusiasm, but a wave, none-the-less.

"Dad," I grumbled sleepily, but I didn't miss the look of pride that enveloped his face at the name, "are we there yet." I almost laughed at the question; it was so classic.

He still looked like he'd been voted hottest man in America in terms of pride. "Almost, sweetheart. Just a few more minutes, and we'll be in Sarah's clutches." He laughed at his joke, and I gave a much more groggy version. I just hoped when he said 'In Sarah's clutches,' that he meant, 'Tomorrow.' But, from what I'd heard about Sarah... I wasn't so sure.

I don't really remember much of what happened for the rest of that night, only that Dad must have been running strictly on coffee by the time we got to our place because he still had energy to get our few bags out of the trunk as I slogged up the steps to my new house, drop them in the entry way, and then go back and get mom and carry her inside as I managed the stairs up to my room; this house was a little... ridiculous compared to some of the other houses in La Push. It was massive, for one thing; six bedrooms, four baths, three stories, and.. yeah, it was plain out impressive, and kinda wasteful, considering our humble family of three. Not that that wouldn't be remedied soon enough; Mom and dad were already looking into a nearby orphanage.

But I didn't think about any of this as I sank into my mattress. I didn't think at all. Just let unconsciousness take me over from the moment my head touched the pillow

--

What I woke to the next day was pretty much the same thing I had woken up to in Texas only two days before, except I didn't need my thick curtains to block out the sun-shine; the clouds did it for me. The smell of a hearty breakfast assaulted my nose, and the smell of coffee jolted my system into a more awake state than I wanted to be; stupid coffee addiction. But more than that, it was the sound of _ringing!_ Did no one else hear that?

I dragged myself out of bed, rubbing my eyes all the way, and realizing, as I walked, that I was not in my comfortable pajama pants, but in my less comfortable jeans. Must not have changed last night. Which meant I would have wicked sleep marks all over my torso because this top is not meant for comfort. I trudged down the steps, ungraceful and loud, wondering why the hell the incessant person at the door was still ringing our door bell. I was tempted to yell, 'No one's here; step off the door bell,' but knew that would not be a good way to start out if it was one of our neighbors, so, instead I just unlocked it and pulled it open.

A woman, around the same height as Mom who is just slightly taller than me, and two boys stood there, the boys carting... food. Why is it always food? Why couldn't they bring us a welcome movie basket. The woman was beaming, and launched herself at me. "Oh, you must be Miss's new daughter, Sydney. Oh, I've just been so excited to meet you. Miss didn't shut-up about you through out any conversation I had with her."

I hugged her awkwardly back. "You must be Sarah." I wasn't trying to ignore her, but it was too early in the morning for babble. Maybe later.

One of the boys cleared his throat, rather loudly. Sarah seemed to have forgotten they were there. "Oh, yes, Sydney, dear, this is my son Collin, and his friend Brady." She introduced each of the freakishly tall boys, the skinnier of the two being Collin. Sarah looked around the two boys, as if someone had disappeared. "And I thought I had one more with me."

"You did, Sarah." Brady replied. "Seth bolted at the last minute though, leaving us with more of this to carry." He held up the food in his arms a little to emphasize his point. "Said Jake needed him for something or other." Sarah seemed satisfied with this, but I was slightly confused. Brady turned his eyes on me. "Welcome to the reservation, Sydney. Don't worry about being the new girl; me and the guys will protect you." He winked at me, and I nearly giggled at the sight; he had to be younger than me.

Collin shoved him. "Oh please, we all know that I'll be the one protecting Sydney here. You just wish you had my skills, man." I usually didn't go for the cocky, pompous attitude, but it seemed more teasing and bantery than anything, so it was actually kind of cute. But these guys were already on my hunk list so, yeah, little biased.

Brady had opened his mouth to reply to Collin's claim, but his voice was over powered by that of my mother. "Oh, Sarah." I turned just in time to get myself out of the way as my mom launched herself at Sarah. I think it's a projectile hug, but I doubt I'll ever get it completely right. "It's been so long! And Collin. Well, the last time I saw you, you were shorter than me. Now you're, well, not." That was the understatement of the century; both of them towered over all of us women. "Well, come in, come in! All of you," she motioned them in, and they entered, taking in the inside of our house.

Brady and Collin let out impressed whistles. Mom had probably gotten up early this morning to start decorating, and so, the front hall already looked immaculate - she was the one who designed the spreads for those magazine living rooms you see in catalogues, after all. Pictures hung all over the walls, but not over-crowding them. Mom had somehow managed to get every school picture I'd ever had given to her, so she had pictures of me from five till now. And even some baby ones that the orphanage had gotten when I was removed from my home. There were also some fairly recent pictures of me and them that we had professionally done in the park. And then, of course, some of them at their wedding and other huge events, but the pictures were mostly me. They really loved me like their own daughter. "Are you sure you're adopted?" I heard Brady ask from behind me. Ah, so he'd noticed the pictures too.

I stifled a giggle. "Pretty damn sure." I replied, and Mom turned around with a warning look for the language. I had the decency to look abashed. "Sorry, Mom."

She looked satisfied. Sarah bumped her with her hip. "O, c'mon, Miss. It isn't that bad. You should hear some of the things my boy says. And his pack of friends. And I mean that with all the love in the world, Brady." she added, giving a meaningful smile to the boy in question. I laughed. It was almost like home already.

"Coffee!" I exclaimed as we reached the kitchen. I scrambled into the room and to the coffee pot, going over to the fridge and grabbing my vanilla coffee mate. I got my special cup that said, "Give me coffee, and no one gets hurt!" and poured, drinking down the scalding liquid. When I peaked over the cup's top, I saw Collin and Brady looking amused, Sarah looking like she was about to burst out in giggles, and mom, used to this routine by now, was fixing the eggs, - bleh - bacon and English muffins. There was a surprising amount, but then, mom had heard tales from Sarah about how much Collin and his friends eat, and Sarah must have warned her there would be at least three of them with her, when she still had three in the first place.

Seeing the pile of food when my mom turned around, both boys' eyes widened and they were sitting at the table faster than I had gotten my coffee - in other words, damn fast. I sat down next to Collin, who was the first to grab a handful of bacon as the plate was laid down on the table, followed very closely by Brady. I took three pieces, and an english muffin, making a small bacon sandwich. Sarah claimed she had already eaten, and only took a couple apple slices when my mom offered, and mom was notorious for snacking while she cooked, so it was just us three at the table while the women went off to chat.

Brady turned to look at me around Collin. "So, you're a coffee addict, huh?" And I couldn't help myself; I laughed.

I raised my eyebrows at him and looked at him over the top of my cup as I took another drink. "Pick that up, did you, Sherlock?" I asked sarcastically, putting my coffee cup down and biting into my biscuit. "Been a coffee addict since I turned thirteen, if you must know."

Collin was looking at me odd, and I tried to mimic his expression. "You're supposed to be taller." He stated it, bluntly and to the point. I'm supposed to be taller; what the hell? Now my weirded out look was completely real and justified. Seeing this, he quickly amended, "Coffee stunts your growth; you probably would have been a couple inches taller if you hadn't started drinking it so young."

I shrugged. "I like my size; nice and average."

"You aren't average." I turned to Brady, confused by this statement. But he gave me a sly, knowing smile, and took a drink of the orange juice my mom had set in front of him right before she left. "Just saying."

But all I was thinking is, 'How does he know that?'

* * *

**A/N: I know that you guys are probably really confused right now, but let's just say that Sydney isn't 100% normal. In fact, she's probably a little closer to 50% normal. She's completely human though. 100% human, just not normal. And she's not a wolf, which I accented quite well by saying she doesn't even have a _shred_ of Native American blood.**

**No, Collin and Brady do _NOT_ imprint on her. This is a Paul/OC story, not a Brady/OC or a Collin/OC story, though the younger wolves deserve some love too.**

**Paul will show up in the next chapter; I swear it.**

**And just FYI, the songs at the top are the main ones I listened to while I was writing. And when I say main, I mean the ones I listened to over and over again, because that's how I roll. And I think that abut wraps it up. Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: It's ridiculous that I should be updating a story for my least favorite catagory before any of the ones I like more, but I guess my OCD decided to focus on this. It happens. A lot, actually. I wonder if it's possible to train your OCD. Anyway, I'm babbling; on with chapter two!**

**Songs:**

**Break Your Heart - Taio Cruz  
Hot N Cold - Katy Perry  
****Your Own Way - Spectacular! Cast  
No Air - Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown  
I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy... - Fall Out Boy**

Chapter 2

McGorgeous

* * *

Sarah had us photo up, even the newly awoken dad, and then she'd gone on her way, dragging Collin and Brady with her, who'd reassured me that school tomorrow would be great. I was just lucky they were only a week in, otherwise, I'd be royally screwed. They'd also promised that they would introduce me to the notorious pack tomorrow - apparently, it was what they called their group of friends.

After I'd finished my second cup of coffee, I'd decided to go grab my board and go surfing. It wasn't supposed to rain today; just overcast, and Washington wasn't known for lightning storms anyhow, just the constant rain. Plus, I'd lived in the bipolar state; I could handle it.

I thumped down the steps in my swim suit and board shorts, my board at my side. I was known in Texas as Wolf Girl, because that's what all my surfing equipment said; my board, my swim suit, my shorts, my towel, and my bag that carried a first aid kit, a small snack and plenty of bottles of water. All of them were black with navy lettering and a sliver wolf. I came running into the kitchen, loading up my bag with water bottles, and two cut up apples. "Where are you going?" I heard J-Dad's knowing voice behind me.

I smiled, and turned around to face him. "Oz. Do you know where I could find a yellow brick road? Or a tin man?" I zipped up my bag, and kicked the fridge shut behind me, slinging the bag onto my shoulder.

Dad smiled. "Nope, sorry. Guess you'll just have to settle for a scarecrow." We both laughed at the cheesiness of this. It was nice to have someone to joke around with again.

"I'm going surfing for a couple hours. If that's alright with you." I added. I didn't want to make it seem like a I'm-going-whether-you-like-it-or-not thing. I had nothing but respect for my adopted parents. And Dad knew how I was about surfing; he wouldn't deny me, even after what happened.

He smiled at me, though I saw the slightly worried edge he held to his gaze. He was probably remembering that day; the call about his daughter being sent to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder, a concussion and a fractured cheek bone. I'd been fine, but there was always that too-real fear for them, and an apparent 'side-effect' from the concussion that made me quite... abnormal. "Yeah, it's fine." He was trying to shake himself of the worry, but I could tell he was finding it difficult. "Just be careful."

I smiled at him. "I will be."

--

Without a car, getting to the beach actually only took about fifteen minutes, but getting to a part of the beach with primo waves? That took about thirty. Not like I minded, though. I'd walked from Houston to Galveston... once, anyway. Never did it again, but I had done it once. There were even a couple other surfers there, probably trying to catch the last of the weekend waves that they could before school tomorrow. And over to the side, I could see a looming cliff with three guys standing on top; cliff diving. I'd heard of it, and made a mental note, as I watched one of the guys jump in, to try it, but from a lower spot and with someone else there to watch my back. Didn't need to relive my accident.

I always brought two towels to the beach; one to lay on the ground and claim a spot so that I had somewhere to put my things, and one I used to dry off afterwards so I didn't get all sandy, but they looked exactly the same. I laid out my first towel on the white sand, and then put my bag on top so it wouldn't blow away. There was a nice breeze going.

I grabbed my pre-waxed board and ran toward the shore-line; I'd laid out my towel a good distance away because high-tide would probably be coming in soon. I splashed into the water. reveling in the familiar feel of the salty water and squishy sand beneath my feet. It had been a while since I'd last gone surfing, my parents a little nervous after the accident, thought maybe I should spend a little more time away from the ocean. I was glad that they seemed to be getting over this fear.

I paddled out to the wave, and stood up. The swell carried me upward, and skillfully manuvered myself to the top of the wave, forgetting the accident, and everything else. This was me.

A while later, and a lot of good waves later, I sloshed my way back to the little spot of beach I had claimed as my own. I let myself fall on the towel after setting my board down, and dug into my bag, looking for those apple slices and a bottle of water. I slid my glasses on to block out the tiny rays of sunshine poking through the clouds, and shut my eyes, taking a small rest.

Only a couple minutes after I had laid down, something above me abstructed the minute amount of light that was making it through the triple threat of the clouds, my glasses and my eyelids. I didn't dare open my eyes, afraid I might see something truly horrendous hovering above me. It was a frightening prospect to say the least. Instead, I waited. "Are you okay?" A girl's voice answered my silence, sounding kind of worried. Though, why, I couldn't tell. I was still breathing... wasn't I?

But, instead of pointing out the obvious, and being mean to someone who was obviously friendly, I decided to be nice and at least sound pleasant. "I'm fine," I said, opening my eyes, and sliding my glasses up, off my nose and onto the top of my head, like you always see those really preppy girls wear their sun glasses.

Above me were two teens, a guy and a girl. The guy wasn't giant and smiling at me, and the girl was tall by regular standards, but dwarfed by the huge giant next to her. Jeez, what do they put in the water around here, I thought to myself as I stared up in wonder. This guy was even taller than Collin and Brady; and I'd thought they'd been giants. Sheesh. The girl was looking down at me apologetically. "I'm sorry; we didn't mean to bug you. It's just... you look so pale and you hadn't moved for a while." She paused for a second, wringing her hands, but the guy grabbed one, putting a stop to it. "We were watching you surf earlier, and we weren't sure if maybe you'd hurt yourself. Sorry again."

I brushed off the apology with the flick of my wrist, and stood up, brushing off my shorts, though there was nearly no way there was sand on me. "It's no big deal," I assured, and she gave me a greatful smile. "It's happened before, actually. I always kind of have a... deadish look to me. I know, it's insanely creepy." I joked, envoking a laugh from both. "I'm Sydney LeHaye." I introduced myself after the laughter had died to mere chuckles.

"Oh," the girl said, looking stunned, as if she was wondering how in the hell she could have been so rude. "I'm Kim, and this is my boyfriend, Jared." Jared... why did that sound so freakin familiar? "You're new around here, right?" she asked, as though it weren't obvious.

"Umm, yeah," I answered, glancing around the beach, simply out of habit; whenever I was at the beach in Texas, I'd always see someone I knew. But I didn't really know anyone yet, so that would be kind of impossible here. I looked back at both of them; picture perfect couple they were, too. "I just moved here with my parents, Jed and Missy LeHaye. I'm actually adopted, and Mom and Dad thought it would be a good idea for all of us to get back to our roots." I shrugged, brushing it off.

Kim suddenly looked kind of excited. "You must be Sarah's cousin's daughter!" she exclaimed, and I almost laughed. Because of how she associated me to Sarah, and because, well, she knew about me, 'Sarah's cousin's daughter.' "Sarah wouldn't shut up about Missy or you, and how she couldn't wait to meet you." She rolled her eyes, and I was tempted to do the same.

Jared broke into a wide grin. "How early did she wake you up this morning?"

I laughed; they must know Sarah pretty well if they knew she was going to do that. Or... maybe they didn't need to know her that well, but I suspescted they did anyhow. "Around nine-ish." I answered, estimating because I hadn't actually looked at a clock when I woke up to hear that incessant ringing. "She came bearing food. I'm surprised that Collin and Brady didn't eat it on the way over, the way they scarffed breakfast down. You'd think Sarah never cooks for her son."

"Oh, you've met Collin and Brady," Kim said, beaming brightly. Well, they knew each other. To state the obvious. "I thought Seth was supposed to be there too." She frowned in confusion. Seth; the elusive Seth. Seth who was supposed to cart more than half the food that the boys had been carrying this morning. Seth who 'Jake' had called off this morning. It seemed everyone knew each other down here, where as, in Texas, I only knew about half my grade; a total of six hundred students.

"I think he was," I lied; I knew he was. "But Jake called him off...?" I trailed off, making it a sort of question. I didn't know Jake or Seth, or why Jake would have any authority of Seth. "How do you guys know each other so well?" I asked, not really liking being left out of the loop. It may be an everybody-knows-everybody kind of town, but they seemed really close.

I could see something register in Jared's face. "The boys must have mentioned the pack, right?" he asked, his jaw a little tighter than before. I nodded. "I'm part of the pack," he said with a tensed shrug; he was watching me pretty closely.

Well, I guess that made sense, but I didn't quite get why he was looking like that. I raised my eyebrows a little bit, and looked around. "Okay..." I said, pretty much out of reasons as to why he was looking at me like that. It was kind of making me a tad uncomfortable. "They told me that I'd meet the pack tomorrow. Guess you wanted to one up them." I joked weakly, but it was enough to break his stare, and for him to untense. He even chuckled a little bit, though the joke was quite horrible.

Kim turned to look at him, looking just as confused as I felt, and when he looked at her, like she was his world, I felt that I was intruding on a very personal moment, and had the urge to go catch another wave. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Kim, Jared," I said, turning around and picking up my board. "But the waves are calling my name."

There was a short - no, minute pause, before Kim said, "I really do want to one up Collin and Brady. And surprise them too. How about we give you a ride back to Emily's house. You did walk, yes?" Apparently, she already knew the answer because she didn't wait for my response. "And then, after we shock them, Jared will drive you home." I turned back around to face them again; they were holding hands, and Kim looked completely serious while Jared didn't seem to mind that he'd been volunteered to drive me home.

Jared saw my board, and then he reexamined what I was wearing, and then my towels, and he broke out into a wide grin. "I see you like wolves," he said, and I smiled too. I did like wolves.

But I put on an exasperated expression. "I don't like wolves," I said, sighing over dramatically, like that was the most ludicrous thing that I'd ever heard, and Jared seemed to know what was coming before I even said it, because he didn't take the cue, and look totally confused. "I love wolves. They're adorable. I have a plushy at home." I smiled, thinking of Coal who was sitting, right now, in my bag. I'd forgotten to take him out last night.

Jared chuckled a little bit. "Well, she admitted that freely enough." Then he looked at Kim, who seemed to be waiting for something. "Oh, and we'll drive you back to Emily's when you finish wave riding, or whatever you call it. And then, I can try and con one of the other guys into driving you home." He laughed - and so did I - as Kim smacked his shoulder.

I planted my board in the ground and leaned on it a little bit. "You guys don't mind waiting?" I double checked, and seeing them shake their heads in a negatory fashion, I was assured, that they would be just fine. "Alright. If you don't have anything else, there's an apple in that bag." I told them, though, if Jared ate anything like Collin and Brady, that apple would not be here when I got back. Good thing, from what I'd heard of Emily, she was always cooking something up for her hoard of gluttons.

--

A couple wipe-outs later, a quite a few good rides, I was walking up the beach, wrapped in a towel with Jared carting my bag and board, and Kim holding his free hand. I was still astounded that he had a free hand. "Don't mind the car," Kim told me as we came up to an awesome black truck. "We borrowed it from one of the other pack members." She looked embarrassed, but that truck was effing awesome.

Jared seemed to agree. "Don't diss the truck, Kim. The truck is awesome, end of story. And at least we weren't stuck with Embry's piece of crap. Damn thing smells like fish tacos. And Seth's poor little car's about to break down." Embry's car smells like fish tacos? That was the sentence that stuck in my mind. I didn't know Embry, but he'd been mentioned in this morning's conversation with Collin and Brady. And now I knew what his car smelled like. And I honestly was glad they got the truck. Jared put my board and bag in the bed, then held my and Kim's doors open so we could respectively get in, and then slide across the hood of the car and jumped into the drivers side.

He jammed the key in the ignition, and the soothing sound of Linkin Park filled my ears. Well, not really soothing. The song was Forgotten, which started off a bit loud. "Sorry," Kim apologized again, over the music, obviously not noticing me. "But Paul's radio is broken, and he only has Linkin Park available in way of CDs."

"Kim," Jared said, catching her attention. "She likes it." I laughed a little bit when Kim turned to look at me, obviously shocked as I grinned and mouthed the words right along with it. "Little Miss Sydney here will fit in very well with the boys." He laughed, and punched it. We went tearing off the beach sand, and I'm not kidding, a wall of it sprayed up, above my window. Jared drives like my mom; that's why we always have dad drive. Even Kim was clamped to her seat while I was rocking out and Jared focused on the road.

It didn't take long to get to Emily's house. And it was a lot smaller and more humble than mine was, but seemed more warm and homey. Jared grabbed the keys, and got out, racing to open the door for both of us girls, and looking crestfallen when we beat him to it. Nothing a little kiss from Kim couldn't cure.

They walked me to the front door, and I suddenly felt a little nervous. I'd only met Collin, Brady, Jared and Kim, and they had been nice enough, but what about the others? Would they like me? Would they be willing to accept me into their group of friends? But I started thinking this far too late to chicken out. "Hey, guys! Look at what Kim brought home!" Jared yelled as he opened the door.

"Is it another cat?" I heard a deep voice rumble from another room. "Cause you know Emily's allergic."

Kim huffed and rolled her eyes. "That was one time!" she said, storming out of the front room. "And I'm sorry. I didn't know she was allergic. I honestly thought she was faking it for your sake, cat hater!" I didn't see where she went, but Jared seemed inclined to follow. He slung an arm around my shoulder, to strong for me to duck out of, and led me after her.

"Guys, it's not a cat," he said, as he led me through another empty room. When we got to the door way, he took his arm off my shoulder, and picked me up by my waist like a little rag-doll, and showed me to the room. "It's Sydney." The room had a total of five people in it, one of them being Kim, who was slapping an older man with a roll of newspapers. But he seemed too shocked to care too much. There was a woman, who turned from her cooking, a baby bump clear as day showing through her loose shirt, and scars running down one side of her face, turning one side of her mouth down. She was gorgeous anyway. There were also two boys. One had stopped mid-bite as Jared picked me up, and stared at me. The other just smirked.

"Sydney, as in LeHaye?" Smirky asked, and I nodded. He got up, and took me out of Jared's arms, and set me on the floor. He put a hand on my head, and measured. I only came to the middle of his chest. "I imagined you taller." he said flippantly with another smirk. I wondered if I could get away with smacking him. I sized him up again. Probably not.

Before I could blink, let alone respond, I heard a loud SMACK! sound, and saw that the woman, presumably Emily, had hit him over the head with a rolling pin. I covered my mouth to keep myself from bursting into giggles as he turned, rubbing his head, to stare at Emily, a hurt, puppy-dog expression on his face. "You leave that poor girl alone, Embry Call." I blinked; Embry.

He pouted and crossed his arms across his chest, making the muscles buldge, grumbling. "Whatever you say, Em." he said begrudgingly as he went to sit back down.

Emily, seeming satisfied, turned back to me, half of her face in a warm smile, and though the other half was set in a permanant frown, her eyes sparkled. She wrapped her arms around me in a hug, and I was a little shocked. "You must be Missy's daughter. It's nice to meet you. I'm Emily Uley. I grew up with Sarah and Missy." She pulled away, and looked me up and down. "Sydney, I'm sure you met Seth this morning." She gestured to the boy who'd frozen mid-bite.

I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could, Seth piped up. "Actually, Em, Jake called me off for work before I could meet lovely young Sydney here." He stood up, and held out a hand for me to shake, which I did. "But it is nice to meet you, Sydney. Welcome to La Push." He gave me a grin, and I couldn't help but grin back; his smile was a little contagious.

"Nice to finally meet the infamous Seth. The one who disappears, and whose poor car is about to break down." I laughed as Seth shot a glare in the general direction of Jared. "And the infamous Embry, whose car supposedly smells like fish tacos." I said, giving him a weird look over Seth's shoulder; not an easy feat on my part; he was freakishly huge too. Seriously, were all the guys around here complete giants? Embry alternated between glaring at me and Jared.

Emily laughed, still at my side. "Before Sydney manages to turn the whole pack against poor Jared, I'd like to introduce you to my husband, Sam Uley." she said, as the man who Kim had been wacking with a newspaper got up, cleaning off one of his hands, and offering it to me.

"Good to meet you, Sydney." he said as I shook his - rather warm - hand with another smile; man, I was smiling a lot today. La Push is already having an excellent effect on me.

"You too, Sam." I looked around the tiny kitchen that was already cramped, but I had the feeling it was usually a lot more cramped, but in a warm and homey way. Like a huge family pressed into a too-small house. "Collin and Brady around?" I asked, looking around, already thinking of tricks to play on them if they weren't. I did that sometimes.

Seth was the one to confirm that my evil plots would be useful. "No. Paul and Jake are out in the garage though, fixing my sad little car." He shot another glare at Jared, who just grinned back at him. "Collin and Brady went with Quil and my big sister Leah to Seattle. Yesterday, Em found out she was having twins. They took Leah's truck and a borrowed friend's truck to go pick up two cribs and all that. Leah needed the boys to carry things." He shrugged. I had plots in mind. Evil plots. But from the sound of things, they would be gone for a while, so I had time to plot more, and maybe even get someone on my side of things.

"Yeah, cause Leah would have beaten Jake and Paul to death if they'd gone with her." Jared said with a scoff, and I giggled a little bit. "You know Jake and Leah have never been the greatest of friends, and Leah and Paul would fight to the finish. At least with Collin and Brady there, Leah won't strangle Quil." He opened the fridge, and started digging for something, causing Emily to roll her eyes.

"Leah's not as big of a bitch as they're making her out to be," said another guy as he walked through the screen door that led to the back, and presumably, the garage - Jake or Paul, maybe? He was holding a can of soda, and was greased from head to foot. "I just don't get along with her very well. I'm Jacob Black. Call me Jake." He shot his can into the trash can, and gave me a grin. Jake had a very, very cute grin. He turned to Jared, who had just come ducked out of the fridge, a sandwich and soda in hand. "But you're right, Paul and Leah would fight to the death."

"I heard my name." And yet another hot guy will pop out of the blue, I thought. But I was wrong.

As I turned around to face the screen door that Jake had just come through, I laid my eyes on the most handsome man I'd ever laid eyes on. He was shirtless, and there were small grease stains on his skin, which was bronzed, and shone with a light layer of sweat. His hair was cut short, and when our eyes met, something in me snapped, and I felt so... drawn to him. And he was staring at me too, and very slowly, McGorgeous's face split into a smile. "Hey," he said in a breathy, deep thrumming voice. He had a rag in his hands, and used it to wipe off, and threw it on his shoulder as he approached me, holding out a hand for me to take. "I'm Paul Walker."

I took his extremely warm hand in my own, cherishing the feelings running through me. "I'm Sydney LeHaye."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, took me a little while to finish this, and I know it wasn't really a satisfying chapter, and I'm sorry, but I got most of the pack introduced, or at least mentioned. And I just thought I'd let you know now so you aren't confused later; Bella and Edward did have Nessie, but Jake did not imprint on her. She has her own mate. Jake will imprint on somebody else later. Not sure who yet, but he will.**

**Alright, review. Tell me how much you loved it, how much you hated it. How much you want to shoot me or how much you want a cookie. Flames are welcomed. Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours  
Jassabella**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Insanity is nigh. And a dot in the distance. Oh well, maybe I'm just a better writer for it. I started writing this out the next day, so you guys better love me. Not literally. But I'm posting faster for this than I am anything else.**

**Songs:**

**Accidentally in Love - Counting Crows  
I Write Sins, Not Tragedies - Panic! at the Disco  
****Jai Ho - The Pussycat Dolls  
Next Contestant - Nickleback  
Thinking of You - Katy Perry  
****Whenever, Wherever - Shakira  
Why Can't I? - Liz Phair**

Chapter 3

Stupid Boys

* * *

Okay, I knew I was staring, but, honestly, I didn't think that gave the whole room the right to look at me with stupidly happy smiles, or at Paul with pure jealousy - cough cough, Embry, Seth and Jake, cough cough - so I cleared my throat, hoping to draw their attention away from him, which it did - really effectively, too. "It's nice to meet you, Sydney." he said, his eyes still connected to mine, and he brought my hand up to his lips, and laid a gentle butterfly kiss on my knuckles. I felt my cheeks heat up instantly.

I looked around the room a little bit, and saw that everyone was different shades of shocked. And then, like a magnet, my gaze was drawn back to his brown eyes, that I were surprised to see had deep green flecks hidden in them. He was completely captivating. Maybe that's why, when I finally managed words, they were little more above a whisper. "It's nice to meet you too." I said, looking down, knowing the shade of crimson I must be at this point would be kind of stunning. For someone so pale, I could get pretty dang red if I blushed hard enough, but I also had pretty good control of when I blushed, so, I willed the red in my cheeks to fade, and I could feel the heat slowly start to drain away.

"Well, Syd's pretty much met everyone at this point." I heard Sam say, breaking my and Paul's little trance, causing me to withdraw my hand from his; I hadn't even really realized we were still holding hands, the warmth felt so natural and safe. My hands felt icy and alone in comparison.

But I grinned anyhow, though I really wanted to reach out my hand a grab Paul's again. "But Collin and Brady don't know that." I said, letting my evil mind go into overdrive.

"And neither do Leah or Quil," Embry added in from where he sat. I could see a glint in his eye, and knew I had just found my partner in crime. "Doest I sense a fellow devious mind in you, oh short one?"

Because Embry seemed to be the only one thinking along the same lines as me, I was willing to let the short comment slide. So I just grinned, and nodded. "You do, oh giant one." I said, turning his jab at my height around on him. But his face turned to the same one it had when Emily had whacked him with the rolling pin; the puppy-pout that he was surprisingly good at.

"Are you calling me _fat?!_"

It wouldn't have been so funny, were it not for the fact that he sounded so insulted and shocked at once, like a girl who really had been called fat. Or, were it not for the fact, that as soon as he had asked, he quickly grabbed the bottom of his shirt, and lifted it up, poking his washboard ab stomach that fat wouldn't have dared to show on. Which was probably the reason that after a miniscule pause, the whole room was shaking with the laughter of everyone. "You could afford to lose a few pounds," I threw back at him, and Embry looked like he was going to faint, causing Emily to sit down in a nearby chair so she wouldn't fall down, and Kim to double over.

Embry stood now, pointing at me, stumbling over his words, probably trying to find an insult good enough to throw back at me, causing me to sober up as I waited for his retort. And while his focus was on me, Kim swooped in and stole his chair, trying to hide her giggles with her hand. "Well, you're just- you're... mean!" he finished lamely, sounding extremely childish. He turned around, and spotted Kim in his seat. "You stole my seat!" He seemed pretty dang shocked by this. "Jared, Kim stole my seat and turned Sydney against me!"

Jared looked at Kim from where he was standing, still chuckling at the scene that had just taken place. "I see that," Jared said, slowly. "But I think that _you_ turned Sydney against you when you called her short." He shook his head at Embry, gave Kim a sweet smile, and returned to his - almost gone - sandwich.

Embry scoffed. "Sure, you take _her side_, you whipped puppy. Whatever happened to bros before..." He trailed off as Jared sent him a dangerous look that advised him to choose his next words wisely, and in my peripheral, I saw Paul move closer so that I could feel the heat radiating off him. "Chicks." Embry said, obviously wishing to avoid a beating, and walked around to the other side of the table - closer to me, as it happened - and taking over another chair.

"Before this turns into a fist fight, why don't Embry and I start concocting a brilliant and most devious plan against the four remaining pack members that have yet to meet me." I broke in, and purposely brushing against Paul as I moved, I came to sit between Seth and Embry. "First off, who all here is still in school?"

"Seth, Collin, Brady and Jake's getting his G.E.D. Seth's a senior, Collin and Brady are juniors." Kim said, jumping into the conversation eagerly. Maybe she was more devious than I first thought. I also found myself wondering how old Paul was if he wasn't in school. I mean, he looked older anyway, but so did Collin and Brady and they still had another year to go. But I brushed this off, and sitting in my seat, I was just realizing I was still wearing nothing but my bathing suit and board shorts. Oh, well. Weirder things have happened.

I felt a presence behind me, and instinctually, I knew it was Paul. That, and the only other people left standing were Jared and Jake, and I could see them. "We usually sucker Embry and Leah to pick the boys up after school because Collin and Brady don't have cars and Seth's is dying." his deep voice put in from behind me, and I had to resist the urge to shiver as I felt his warm breath hit my shoulder. "If that helps."

"And almost everytime I pick up Collin and Brady, Quil comes with me and talks me into picking up his girlfriend, Claire, who is also a junior." Embry put in from beside me. He'd also managed to make a piece of paper materialize when I hadn't been paying attention. Embry has paper powers now? Huh. "You got any ideas, cap?"

Cap? "Yeah, maybe." I said, distractedly, as I snatched the paper from Embry, and then the pen he'd also magically made appear, making him pout. "Depends. Who drops them off?" I asked, writing a series of notes on the paper. Like who would be there when we got out of school. I guess that meant that Kim was also out of school. "And does anyone have Seth and Brady's schedules? I could use that too. As well as yours, Seth." I said, glancing at him quickly, and he nodded, taking the paper and pen that I'd just snatched, and writing down his scedule in a speedy and messy fashion. It matched mine nearly perfectly, except where I had theater and martial arts, he had mech shop, and, to my surprise, office aid.

"Leah drops Seth off at school, and the boys mooch off Sam in the morning on his way to work." Jared provided as he chugged his soda.

And then, Emily grabbed the paper and wrote both Collin and Brady's schedules down. Since they were in a different grade than me, they only had lunch with me. "I can work with this. Okay, Embry. Here's what's going to happen..."

--

The plan was complete, and I'd been lent a shirt in my time there. But it was actually starting to get pretty late, and Leah had just checked in over the phone - good thing Sam had answered, or part of the plan would have gone out the window - to let them know that they had gotten two cribs, one changing station, two diaper disposers, a breast pump for Em - apparently, Brady'd almost passed out when he figured out what it was for - twelve baby bottles, burping rags, a couple bags of diapers, bibs, two bouncers and two car seats. And they were on their way to buy clothes, and a baby moniter; good thing Sam had given her his credit card.

"Alright, everyone, I've gotta be getting home," I announced, mentally reminding myself to wash and return the tank top to Emily later. Didn't want a rep as the shirt jacker, but I think I've already got a rep as the tiny evil mastermind; Embry, of course, was the one who intiated the nick name.

Jared grabbed the keys to Paul's truck. "Okay, shorty, I'lll drive you home..." He trailed off and looked around the room with a mischevious glint to his eye that said he was going to actually pawn it off on someone else. Nice. Real nice. "Unless..." he said, drawing it out to build suspense or something like that, but alls it was doing was annoying me. "One of you guys wants to take her home."

"I'll do it!" Jake, Embry and Seth all said at once, but Paul was the one to step forward and grab his keys out of Jared's hand. "I'll take her home," he said calmly, giving me a grin far more contagious than Seth's or Jake's. I resisted the urge to blush and smiled back. The other three looked put out by this, but willing enough to just roll with it.

We left out the back door, and as the screen shut behind me, I heard Embry say, "He's too old for her. I should have been the one to-" His sentence cut off as I heard another large SMACK! sound. I started giggling madly, and Paul gave me an odd look. "You didn't hear Embry get his for saying..." The last part was kind of embarrassing, so instead, being with elegant with words as I am, I finished with, "that?" Yeah, it's lame. I know.

He raised his eyebrows at me; ultimately cute. "You did?"

Normally, this might have insulted me - I mean, I have ears after all - but it was Paul. So I just nodded my head, shooting the weird look he'd just given me right back at him. "Yeah, why wouldn't I?" I asked, honestly wanting to know why he thought I wouldn't hear it.

He shrugged; again, he's built with washboard abs and wide shoulders, bronzed so beautifully. Oh, complexion, we shall never be. "No reason, I guess," he said, sounding a little abashed and embarrassed, though it was hard to see if he was blushing through his tan skin. "I've just got really good hearing; dog ears, almost. I didn't think that you would hear..." he looked at me with a silly grin. "That."

I mocked offended, and looked at him in mock shock, playfully slapping his - incredibly warm - arm. "I can't believe you're making fun of a lady, such as myself." I said in a prissy fashion, pretending to storm off, ahead of him.

"What lady?" he said as he caught up beside me with ease; stupid smug tall guys. "I don't see any lady around." he joked, and I smacked his arm again, just as we reached the front of the house, and the truck. I love his truck. He grabbed my wrist and turned me toward him. "I just see a very pretty girl who I'd like to get to know better." Oh, cheesiness, how I love thee.

I decided to make him suffer a little bit. "Well, here's your chance, hot-shot." I said in a teasing tone. "You get to drive me home." I went to the other side of the truck, but somehow he beat me there, opening the door for me, and, in another cheesy gesture, bowing to me. I really do love cheesiness. "Thank you, sir." I said in a posh accent, lifting up my non-existent skirt, and stepping into the truck like it was a carriage.

He got in the other side, just as I was buckling up, and smiled at me. "So aren't you going to ask the most basic question, since you heard what Embry said?" he asked as he clicked his own seatbelt on, and put his key in the ignition. "How old I am?" Oh, I thought he was refering to why he got automatic dibs, and the other guys had done nothing to stop it; but the age thing works too.

"Doesn't really matter." I said, and he looked at me with a funny expression. "I'm seventeen." I said, and his expression went away to be replaced by a grin. "But, since we're on the subject, how old are you?" I was a little curious about his age.

"Twenty." he answered me, looking over to guage my reaction; I could definately believe it. "Twenty-one in November." I still didn't mind. It was a little less than a four year age difference; my mom and dad were off by five years, and they get along just peachy keen. Age had never been a big thing with them. Not even while they were adopting it; it was whoever they connected to, which was me.

"I turn eighteen in October," I provided as he started driving. There was a short silence, and then, out of no where, his stereo came on, blasting Given Up by the best Band ever; Linkin Park! He reached out to turn it off, but I knocked his hand away, and opted for turning it down. I looked at him with a sheepish grin. "I love Linkin Park."

The grin on his face put the sun to shame. "Well, there's one thing we have in common."

We both sat there, grinning and rocking out to Linkin Park. I hardly noticed we had pulled up in front of my house until he unbuckled himself from the seat, which prompted me to look out the window to see my massive house instead of Sam and Emily's warm little home. I could feel my face fall, but tried not to make it obvious. I unbuckled myself, and reached for the door handle, but Paul beat me to it, opening the door. "Home, sweet home," I said, grumbling a little bit.

I started walking toward the door. "Syd," I heard, and turned at the sound of my name to see Paul still standing by the truck door I'd just exited, flipping his phone in his hand. "Can I have your number?" he asked, sounding so cute that I kind of wanted to go over there and pinch his cheeks.

But intead of embarrassing myself in such a grotesque fashion, I opted to grin at him, and nod. "Of course," I said, walking back towards him, and setting my board down on the ground so that I had a free hand. He held his phone up and took a picture of me, and then offered it to me so that I could type his number in. I smiled as I handed it back to him. "See you tomorrow." I said, picking up my board, and turning back towards the front door; I never heard his door open the whole time I was walking.

--

The rest of the day had been fairly uneventful and hardly worth noting, because there was hardly any day left. Mom, Dad and I'd had dinner together, just like we always had in Texas, and mom did an excellent job, just like she did in Texas. But the next morning, I woke up before my alarm even went off, excited about the events that the day would bring. I had four pack members to confuse to utter distraction, and only a couple hours to do it.

I got ready, pulling my long hair into a pony-tail and dressing in jeans and a short-sleeved brown button-up. I'd always looked really good in brown for some reason; maybe it was my complexion. I also lined my overly-blue eyes thickly in liner because it made me look like a doll, and sometimes freaked people out, so it was fun.

Part of the master plan that Embry and I had concocted - with a little assistance from Seth - was Paul picking me up, so after I finished my strawberry pancakes, I went to wait outside, rocking back and forth eagerly on my heels, waiting for Paul's truck to come into view. This was step one because Sam had agreed to stall until Paul gave him the signal to pull into the lot so that the boys would be sure to catch me getting out of his truck. And speak of the truck, and it shall appear. The sleak black ride had barely pulled into my drive-way before I had jumped in, throwing my messanger bag onto the floor. Paul was smirking at me. "Eager much?" And then he caught a look at my messanger bag, which had the same design as all my boarding equipment. "You really love wolves." he noted, sounding pretty happy about it.

I rolled my eyes, and smacked his arm. "Just drive." I ordered, and he mock saluted me, pulling out of the drive, and onto my street just as my mom appeared in the door to wave me off to school. She spotted Paul, and raised her eyebrows and gave me a thumbs up; crazy lady.

Ready or not, boys, here I come.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, okay. I know you guys probably want to hear all about her day at school, and you will... next chapter. Which I should have up... soonish. This is my fastest updating story because I have the most ideas for it, and it just kind of flows for some odd reason. I'm having one issue, and that's deciding when Paul and Sydney should start transitioning to more than friends, and when he should tell her about the wolf thing.**

**But other than that, I have very little to say. **

**There is one other thing, however. I have gotten a surprising amount of reviews for this story, but none of them consist of anything. 'Good chapter; update soon,' doesn't help the writer at all. I enjoy the compliments, but it doesn't let me know what you want to see more or less of. So start telling me your favorite parts, your favorite relationships - besides Paul and Syd; I mean friendships - and your favorite lines. Tell me if you didn't like something. Suggest things. It will help me improve as a writer and know what you guys want to see happen to this story. Its all I ask.**

**Alright, I think that's it. Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay, so I'm going a little nuts right about now. I want to update something else, but am unable to. I'm going to have to put everything else on hiatus until I run out of ideas for this, aren't I? Shit. Oh, well. At least I'm updating something.**

**Songs:**

**Accidentally in Love - Counting Crows  
Haunted - Evanesence  
Here I am - Bryan Adams  
In My Head - Jason Derülo  
Jai Ho - The Pussycat Dolls  
Make it Shine - Victorious Cast  
Need You Now - Lady Antebellum  
Out of the Blue - Aly & AJ  
Whenever, Wherever - Shakira  
**

Chapter 4

First Day Fun

* * *

Paul and I pulled into the lot at the same time I saw a blue Volkswagen pull in; I assumed that was Sam with the boys, considering Paul had just sent him a text. I smiled, and as he pulled into a parking spot, I launched myself at Paul, wrapping my arms around his neck in a hug, and he slid his arm around my waist in a side hug. "Have a good day, girly." he said quietly, and I smiled, seeing that both Collin and Brady were out of the car and watching our display with open mouths.

The part with the hug had been planned - suggested by Embry, oddly enough - but I decided to deviate, and as I unwrapped my arms, kissed his cheek with a rather girly giggle, and grabbed my bag, opening my door and sliding out. "You too." I giggled again, and winked as he looked at me with a grin so wide, it almost looked like it hurt.

I started walking toward the front office building, but stopped in my tracks when I saw Collin and Brady coming at me from the side; I hadn't even realized Brady was calling my name, otherwise I would have stopped. Damn, I knew that explosion in the garage last night had affected my hearing. Stupid dad, tinkering with that old as dirt radio. I told him not to, but no, he just had to get it on the Houston frequency. Yeah, he failed.

"Hey," Brady greeted me as they both came to stand directly in front of me. He stuttered for a second, seeming to try and find the words, all the while glancing back at where Paul had parked, though the truck was already gone. "Um, how do you know Paul?" he finally settled on, and Collin nodded in agreement. It took some effort not to smile, but I suppressed the grin and cocked my head to the side, looking confused. "You know, the guy who just gave you a ride." He looked at me, trying to see if this was going to ring any sort of bell. "You just hugged him; kissed his cheek." he tried again, looking at me like I was insane.

I looked at him with exagerated big innocent doe eyes. "But Brady... I walked to school." Which sent both their jaws crashing to the pavement below. I tried not to imagine a creaky hinge sound. I readjusted the strap on my shoulder. "You guys okay? You acting a little weird."

"I-I know- You just- We just- I mean... huh?" Collin stuttered, finally giving up and slumped in on himself.

I giggled, hiding it behind my hand, trying not to make it too obvious that I was pulling a fast one on them. "Yeah, I walked to school today. I kept getting misted whenever a car drove by." I pouted, trying to make it believable, and my pouts, or so I've been told, are adorable and irresistible. And as the pout took effect, it seemed they were starting to soften.

"Yeah," Brady agreed, nodding his head along slowly, probably trying to remember if he'd _actually _seen me with Paul. He was starting to doubt; I could see it in his eyes. "It rained last night; there's water all over the road." I could almost hear his mind conflicting with itself. 'It sounds reasonable.' 'But I just saw her with Paul!' 'Is she lying?' 'I don't know; she seems nice enough.' But... it wasn't possible. I closed my eyes and waited for the imagined voices to fade. My mind did that sometimes; conjured up voices that couldn't possibly actually exist.

"Oh, don't I know it!" I exclaimed, remembering to keep up my little charade. Stupid distractions. "But you know, I always did love the rain, so I guess this would be the perfect place for me." I added with a smile, remembering that as specifically why Je-Dad had decided to take his work here; he and Mom wanted to get back to their roots and start up a real family.

Collin laughed. "You won't think so after a month straight of it." he assured me, but I knew he was wrong. I'd lived in the bi-polar state of Texas, and they could have some pretty long stretches of rain, so I doubted that it would really be that bad. "Trust me, it gets down-right dreary."

I shrugged, not really caring much; I really did love the rain, and he so was not going to change my mind. Not one little bit. Rain and I were best friends; always have been, and always will be. When I was younger, it was one of the few things that would calm me. I was about to reply to Collin when all thoughts of rain vacated my mind, only to be replaced with thoughts of my evil plot, and my evil plot alone as I spotted a tiny red car with a woman driving it, and Seth in the passenger seat. I had to stop the grin from spreading across my face, and force myself to look away from the car, but before I did, I saw Seth smile and look out his window with a wink, a sure sign that he had seen me.

I didn't do anything, just looked at Collin and Brady with a fairly bright smile, and waited for my cue, like Seth and I had talked about. "Well, I'll be damned!" I heard, and smiled, but it was gone before Collin and Brady could have seen it, replaced with a look of surprise as I turned to see Seth, standing there in his giant glory. "If I ever thought I'd see you around ever again, I'd have done dug myself a hole to hide in." He laughed, and I found myself grinning.

"Oh, my Godfrey! Seth!" I immediately dropped my bag on the ground and took a running start, barely dodging a truck as it attempted to run me down, and launched myself into a projectile hug that my family seemed to be pretty famous for performing; even I was starting to pick it up. I jumped up, and latched my arms around Seth's neck in a hug, and his arms wrapped around my waist to keep me from choking him, but it warmed me right up, so bonus. Of course, we had practiced this yesterday so that he would know exactly when and how tightly to wrap his arms around my waist. I pulled back to look at him, though not far because, really, he was still holding me about a foot off the ground. "I missed you, my beloved!" I said in an over-dramatic fashion, laying a kiss on Seth's cheek, which, even though he had known it was coming, set off a blush behind those russet cheeks.

Collin and Brady had, of course, heard this exchange, as they'd followed behind me, and I saw their confused expressions turn to ones of complete and utter shock and bewilderment. Seth set me down on the ground, still grinning down at me like a mad-man, and me grinning back at him. "Still the same ole Syd." he said with a laugh, slinging an arm over my shoulders.

I took a peek back at the little car, and just as I'd hoped would be the response, the woman, Leah, I assumed, was staring at her brother like he'd lost his mind, but she shook her head, and put the car into reverse, and dove out of the lot, acting like nothing had happened. This was making me feel all giddy inside.

"So wait," Brady put his hands up as he regained composure and gathered his thoughts. "You two... know wach other?" We both nodded, grinning. "How?"

I laughed an raised my hand, and Brady, giving me another weird look, pointed to me. "We met a couple years back when I lived in L.A. with my mom and dad." It was partially true; we had lived in L.A. for three months while dad had worked on one of his films, and Seth had been in the area around the same time frame, for some sort of school trip. "I showed him around a little bit when he got seperated from the class, and got him home safe and sound." I smiled up at him, and he gave them an embarrassed grin.

Collin smiled now, and for a split second, I though he had caught onto our plan, but I pushed those thoughts away and out of my mind as he spoke. "You never told us you got lost, or that you met a beautiful girl down in L.A. Seth, my friend, you've been holding out on us." He chuckled, shaking his head at Seth.

Seth grinned at Collin, and his arm tightened a little bit around my shoulders, pulling me even closer to him. "Well, maybe I didn't want to share my little Sydney with you guys," he gave an over dramatic sigh, "but now that she's here, I guess I have to." His other arm wrapped around me, so that he was basically hugging me from behind, and I grabbed hold of one of his wrists with my hand, embracing his hold. We were a pair of damn fine actors.

Brady, seeming to believe us - yay - smiled, and said, "Yeah, you do have to share. Syd, where's your schedule?" I opened the flap of my messenger bag, and rummaged for the spare piece of paper, coming up with it, looking surprisingly neat for any paper that had been shoved in a high-schooler's bag. His face automatically dropped as he read it.

"What?" I asked, acting all innocent-like. I peeked over his arm at the sheet of paper in his hands, looking at my schedule. "No classes together?"

Brady handed me back the sheet of paper, sighing. "Nope; you don't have any classes with me or Collin." He shot Seth a glare, who glanced back at him sheepishly, having 'seen the paper over his shoulder.' "But you seem to have almost every class with Seth." He made a noise in the back of his throat that I couldn't really make out between a grunt, a growl or just clearing it. He gave the paper back to me, and shot another short glare at Seth. Collin, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine with this new developement.

The bell rang, and before either of the younger boys could get one word in, Seth hitched his arm around my shoulders again. "Well, boys, since I have first period with Syd, I'll walk her to the office to finalize any paper work, and then lead her to class." The way he said it was almost... smug, but I guess that was the point. "Have fun."

-Forever His-

School was going great when lunch had finally come around. I'd spent my classes with Seth, meeting Claire in the process, but only because the girl was a math genius and had landed herself in the twelth grade math level, which was pretty impressive. I could barely keep up with the twelth grade math, and I am in the twelth grade, but then, my forte had always been writing and drawing; not math.

Seth had been so much fun all day; he kept telling me pack stories that were hilarious, like the one about Embry challenging Sam to a dual over a bag of gummy bears. But he seemed to be holding something back from me. I didn't press, but it seemed he wanted to tell me anyway. He just... wasn't able to, whatever it may be that he was holding back. It was almost like something was restraining him whenever he tried, and he eventually gave up on it, acting like nothing had happened.

The lunch bell rang, and just like all day long, Seth had instantly gathered his stuff, waited for me to get mine in my bag, and dragged me to the lunchroom, which was surprisingly empty. I turned to Seth, one eyebrow raised in question; most of the people in the room were in the lunch-line, still buying their food; the only people who took up actual tables were teachers.

Seth gave me a dashing grin. "Its not raining, so everyone's gone outside to eat." he explained, and to me, it made perfect sense. Why we hadn't been able to do that in my other school, I will never know. Seth's hand was still wrapped around my wrist, and he led me to the line, a small bill in hand. "Everything's really cheap here, but its all good. So, since its your first day, I figured I'd pay for your first school lunch. Hope that's alright." I could see a blush heating up his cheeks and the tips of his ears, but paid it no mind. I smiled at him, and standing way up on my tiptoes... got no where near close to his face, so I put my hand on the back of his neck to bring him down to my height, and laid a kiss on his cheek.

He looked happy when I allowed him to stand back up, and moved my wrist to a more comfortable place in his grip; namely, out of it. But he replaced my wrist with my hand, which I was okay with; it reminded me of when Paul and I had shaken hands yesterday, and boy, that still had me excited anyway. He pulled me through the line, letting me pick out what I liked, which was a taco salad and juice because I'm small and can't eat much, but I'm still a Texas girl.

Once Seth had paid for everything - a grand total of ten dollars with all he got, when mine only cost one-fifty - he led me out the side door of the lunchroom to a little area outside littered with tables and students. The students were everywhere. Those who couldn't find a table had ended up on the ground, or maybe in a tree, as was the case for some of the people I saw. I felt a slight tug on my hand, and turned to face Seth, who was giving me a bright grin. "This way, new girl. We need to start the act up again." He winked at me and I laughed.

He led me towards a table where I already saw three people sitting, two of which were freakishly huge; Collin and Brady, no doubt in my mind. And that left the girl to be Claire from Math; Quil's Claire, and though I hadn't met Quil yet, if his choice in women was anything to go by, I liked him.

"Hey, Syd," they greeted collectively, and Claire patted a spot on the bench next to her, which left enough room for both Seth and I to sit down. Seth was frowning at the lack of greeting that he'd recieved, but when I reached up and grabbed his fingers in my own, he followed me, and sat down, taking the arm off my shoulder and settling for holding my hand under the table. Good thing I can eat with either hand. "So, how have your other classes gone?" Claire asked, jumping in before the boys had any kind of chance to get a word in, which caused Brady to stick his tongue out at her.

I smiled, taking the top off my salad and pouring all the dressings I had gotten in. "Yeah, English Lit. was really fun. They're in their modern sector, and I chose James Patterson." I licked the container that held the salsa that I'd just poured onto my salad. Everyone was giving me a weird look. "What?" I asked, defensively. "I like salsa."

This caused the three of them to start laughing. "Syd, no one in this school thinks that Ms. Lancer's English Lit. class is fun because of the material, but because she's got to be the coolest teacher in the school." Claire explained to me. Oh, well then. I'm not everyone. That's for sure- nope, internal monologue, you stop right there. I don't need you being all weird and awkward while I'm acting and talking to my friends.

"Yeah, she'll be our art teacher later," Seth put in helpfully. "A lot of the Rez kids drop English Lit. for senior year because you only need three years of English, so she's free for about half the day, and she decided to take up art when Delphne retired." There was a short pause, in which Seth must've caught my look, because he clarified. "Delphne was the old art teacher."

I nodded in understanding. Ms. Lancer certainly had been nice, and I loved to sketch, so that was an added bonus. I grabbed my fork with my non-occupied hand and stabbed into my salad, spearing a little bit of everything and shoving it into my mouth to relieve the hunger headache that I was starting to develope. It tasted so good, and I almost groaned as the jalapeños made contact with my tongue and set off the familiar burning sensation that I loved so much. "Can't wait," I said with a smile, and Seth smiled at me, wiping some of the sour cream off my lip with his napkin, causing me to giggle.

-Forever His-

Seth and I walked into the class together, him all greasy because of mech shop. The room was empty as far as people went, but was full of easels and sketch books and paintings hung on the walls and were drying on the racks; sculptures decorated the room in an artful manner, and the whole room was just... art. Pure, beautiful creations. And on the white board, it clearly read, 'Meet me outside!' in big red letters. I was just now noticing why the room was so radiant; unlike every other day since I'd been here, sunlight streamed through the window, lighting up the reds, oranges, yellows and every other color of the rainbow. I never thought I'd see sun in this place, but it was... magnificent.

I turned to Seth and he shrugged, but we turned around and headed for the nearest exit. For some odd reason, all the windows in the school halls were tinted, so when we opened the door, the light from outside was blinding. But we soon found Ms. Lancer and about half of the class sitting outside in a circle. "Hello Seth, Sydney. Please have a seat while we wait for the rest of the class." Ms. Lancer said as she noticed our arrival.

I did sit down, and Seth sat next to me. We settled into a game of rock paper scissors, and though he would never admit it, I won every single round. He glared at me as I won yet again. "How do you do that?" he asked me evenly. I grinned at him in return and mimed zipping my lips shut and throwing away the key. "Of couse, _now_ you shut up." He pouted.

A couple more people joined us on the grass, and clapping her hands together once, Ms. Lancaster smiled and said, "Alright, class, I assume most of you have met Sydney LeHaye. She's just moved here and is new to the school." A few people around the circle offered me warm, welcoming smiles, but one person offered me one full of malice; a blond with icy colored brown eyes with the depth of a puddle. She was attractive in a shallow way, but really looking at her, she seemed bitchy and unappealing. I gave her an odd look, but turned back to Ms. Lancer as she started speaking again. "Last week, we worked freely. This week, we start working in our sketch books." She held up a thick notebook with different shades of green swirls printed on the front.

And then, I swear, she pulled a giant stack of those notebooks out of nowhere and set them in the middle of the circle spreading them out. "Come pick one out." she encouraged us.

I was one of the first ones up and instantly found mine; it was black with a simple, long-stemmed silver rose printed on the front. Very me. I sat back down and examined my cover with a smile. Seth had sat back down to, and his journal was simple too; it had some kind of sports car on the front. I smiled at him and flipped the cover open to the first page and neatly printed my name on the manilla sheet in the front that also had a fold to hold loose papers in place. "Today, there is no prompt," she told us. "Spread out and draw whatever you feel."

I smiled at Seth, but stood back up, flipping to the first, clean white page in the sketch book that I had, and sitting under the nearest tree which just happened to be a wide stretching oak with wide branches that made a large shadow on the sunny campus grounds. I took one of my pencils out of my bag, and once the pencil touched the paper, it took on a life of it's own. I sketched, my pencil flying across the paper, touching up lines, erasing mistakes.

By the time the class was over, a picture of Paul stared at me, his lips turned up in a smile, his eyes intense. I blew off the pencil shavings and smiled at it. It was only him from his chest up, but I felt that it sort of captured him, and before I knew it, I was drawing trees behind him because it seemed so innate to his essence.

I heard the bell ring, and stood up, flipping the book closed and gently letting it fall into my bag, and headed off to biology with Seth's arm around my shoulder in a friendly manner. So far, I think he and Embry will be my besties, but out of all the pack members I've met so far, I find myself attracted to... Paul. Thinking about him, my hand absently reaches into my bag and strokes the cover of the journal that held a sketch of him.

-Forever His-

The final bell of the day rang, and I almost yelled in relief; my history teacher was as boring as a pile of bricks and he made history just as interesting. I shoved Seth's shoulder to stop the snoring as I packed up, and he jumped awake, startled. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and I laughed a little bit as he mumbled, "Syd's a meanie; waking me up during such a nice dream. Oh, all the ice cream and cookies." I swear he started salivating, but then, that could have just been drool from when he was sleeping.

I shoved him again, causing him to glare at me, but I achieved the desired effect, which was him standing up and grabbing his. "C'mon, Rip Van Winkle, we gotta get outside." I urged him, reminding him of the act, and he rolled his eyes at me, slinging his arm over my shoulders yet again, as he very well should. I patted his head with my hand and said, "Good boy."

We walked through the nearly deseted halls to the exit, and I couldn't help but noticing how fast this school emptied. My old school always had quite a few people linger behind after school was over, causing trouble or getting extra lessons, they all stayed. Point was the halls were never this empty when I was leaving the halls of my old school. It was pretty shocking, were I to be honest. But we reached the entrance, and as the light flooded my eyes, blinding me, I found myself looking for two very specific cars and Embry himself. Seth didn't seem to mind the sudden burst of light because he only squinted slightly.

I found Embry soon enough. Even with several other tall guys around, Embry still towered at a whopping 6'3", slightly shorter than Paul's 6'5" but taller than Collin and Brady's matching 6'0". Being called short had given me some sort of complex and I wanted to know everyone's height. Collin, Brady and Seth had all found it extremely funny when I asked Claire, who is shorter than me, and she's answered 5'1" which was exactly a foot shorter than Quil's 6'1", or so she'd told us. Kim was pretty damn tall herself, only five inches from Jared's 6'3" at 5'10".

But Embry spotted me pretty easily too, though the lot was still pretty full. I also found Leah's car, and she was sitting on the hood of her car, looking at Seth and I with question marks nearly tangible and floating around her head. I smiled at Seth, and he winked at me; things were going to get interesting.

Seth and I continued to walk forward, towards the center of the lot. "My God!" I heard Embry yell, and quickly turned to look at him. "It's Sydney LeHaye! Come give me a hug, sugar!" he yelled, holding out his arms. Sugar? That was a bit of a deviation, ut whatever; laying it on thick is the key anyway. I looked up at Seth and he nodded, unhooking his arm from my shoulder, and I ran towards Embry, jumping at the last second, just before I smashed into him, and he caught me easily, half bridal style. "I missed ya, shorty." he told me.

Another guy got out of the green off-roader that I assumed belonged to Embry - Jared was right, I could smell fish tacos. He was slightly shorter than Embry, but a little wider and built; I assumed him to be Quil. He was looking at Embry and I just as the woman - Leah - was; a big question mark above his head. "I missed you too, Embry." I told him as he set me down on the ground, and I grinned up at him.

I saw Collin, Brady and Claire approaching us from the side, and I siddled back up against Seth. I also saw Leah push herself off the hood of her car, her curiosity getting the better of her; she had to see what was going on. Seeing this, and knowing my plan was about to come into plan, I twitched my right eye in a half wink - our signal to officiall execute the plan.

I waited for Seth to say his line, but Brady beat him to it, repeating almost the exact words I'd told Seth to yesterday; oh, this was sweet. "So, Syd, you already know Embry too?" he asked me incredulously I loved it when the people I was playing a joke on unknowingly played along, walking right into my well laid traps. I almost felt the need to do an evil laugh, but held it in for the sake of the plan, and put on a blank face, like I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

"Um, no..." I answered slowly in an 'what would give you that idea,' sort of voice, and fought back a smile. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure, but it's nice to meet you Embry." I smiled and held out a hand, which he took and shook with another smile, fixing to greet me back, as if we'd never met before; as if he hadn't just hugged me like we were the best of friends.

"What? You just- he just- he- you- WHAT THE FUCK?" I think we finally managed to make Collin's brain implode. Maye he was left a little unstable after the Paul episode this morning, but damn, the poor guy cracked fast. It looked like he was about to collapse to the ground in the fetal position... Okay, maybe that's going a bit far, but he did look slightly manic, and Brady, while much calmer... and saner for that matter, had a similar expression, though most of his mania was contained in his eyes. "He just called your name; you ran at him, hugged him. How do you not know him?" Collin asked, the deadly calm of his voice slightly frightning, were I to be honest, but right now, I wasn't being too big on the honesty.

"He didn't call my name," I said evenly, the lie passing through my lips easily. "I didn't run at him; I was walking with Seth the whole time." Seth nodded in agreement.

"The hell you didn't!" Leah exclaimed. Her voice was actually quite beautiful and melodic, and if it weren't for the malice, she'd be in really good shape. And the scowl didn't exactly help either. "I watched you do it..." she paused for a second, looking me over. "Who the hell are you, anyway?" she asked, crossing both arms over her chest in defiance. Defiance to what, I couldn't tell you if I wanted to.

I mocked a curtsey. "Sydney LeHaye; pleased to meet you. You must be Leah - Seth's told me all about you." I smiled at her, and she seemed to take offense to my slightly mocking tone because her scowl deepened. Well, I sure wasn't winning any fans on team Leah. Eh, I'd charm her later. Right now, I had a charade to keep up with and finish.

Claire had gone to stand next to Quil, and I found myself thinking they were very cute together, just before I mentally berated myself for getting distracted... again. I think I might have ADD. Everyone still looked confused, and rady was the one to break the silence. "What's going on?" he asked, not really asking anyone in particular; anyone could answer. Those not in on the joke were at a loss, and those of us in on the joke were trying to act like we were at a loss too.

And then, right on cue, as if we'd pressed a button to summon him - which we hadn't - Paul walked up, not exactly looking happy. "That's a good question Brady; what _is _going on here?" The way Paul said it demanded an answer, and I almost wanted to answer him for real, but I had to remember the hoax.

And then, just as we had planned, Paul noticed me under Seth's arm and shaking Embry's hand; still, and that was planned too. His hands started shaking, and immediately, Embry let go of my hand, though I don't know why shaking hands should be reason to let go of me. But Seth still held firm, so I guessed the whole thing was still an act. "Sydney," he said, sounding that deadly calm that guys did when they were about to go off, but wanted to keep their girlfriend out of it. "What are you doing with _them?_"

I shrugged out of Seth's arm, walking toward Paul and laying my hand on his chest to calm him down like I'd seen Kim do yesterday when Jake had started Seth's car up in the backyard, and mud had sprayed all over Jared's face; his hands had been shaking then, too, though not so severely as Paul's were; maybe that was a sign of anger in La Push. "Nothing, baby. I'm not doing anything." I said soothingly, keeping the one hand on his chest, the other one venturing up to rub the back of his neck. "Just talking to some of my friends." I assured him, and his hands started to still. "It's alright." I assured.

Paul squeezed his eyes shut, as if he were fighting off real anger and real jealously; he was a pretty good actor too. I was thoroughly impressed with him, Seth and Embry's acting abilities. "They were touching you; Seth had his arm around you," he ground out, looking at me with those beautiful eyes of his, almost pleading with me to tell him it wasn't true.

The hand I had on his neck moved to touch his cheek. "I know, baby, but I promise; we're just friends." His eyes closed and both his hands came up to hold the hand on his face there, engulfing my hand in warmth. Well, I know that my improv's good because none of this - from the time Paul started shaking - had been planned out very well. Yeah, it had been planned, but we had sort of hoped that moving more on spur of the moment actions and words would make our performances more believable.

"Now she knows Paul too." I heard from behind me, and I turned to see Brady, now looking pretty angry. "Would someone mind telling me what the hell is going on here?"

Embry looked over at me, amused as hell, Seth looked like he was about to burst out laughing, Leah had an extremely miffed expression, Collin looked like he had vacated his mind, Quil and Claire wore matching expression of confused neutrailty and behind me, Paul pulled me against his chest, and I could feel him laughing, though when I looked up at him, his face was a stone mask. "Should we tell them?" Embry asked me, holding back his own laughter.

I grinned broadly at him and Seth. "I thought we could have gotten a little more out of it, but hey, whatever. I had a good time." I laughed and heard Paul start doing the same behind me, causing the looks of confusion to increase.

Embry laughed. "I guess you're right. Step forward, please, Ms. LeHaye." I did, to the center of the circle. I smiled at Paul, and he grinned back at me. Embry cleared his throat dramatically and clasped his hands in front of him somberly. "For those of you who don't know her, this is Sydney LeHaye. She has just moved here from Texas. Ms. LeHaye enjoys surfing, drawing, writing and acting. Ms. LeHaye also has a rather devious mind, quite like my own, and yesterday, after meeting most everyone in the pack, Sydney here came up with the brilliant idea of confusing you all to distraction. Clearly, she has succeeded, so how about a round applause for our young actress." He, Paul and Seth started off, slowly joined by Claire and Quil, and then by Leah who actually looked rather impressed, followed by Brady and finally, Collin, who seemed to be back in his right mind. As they applauded, I curtsied, smiling brightly.

When they finished clapping and cheering for me, I smile at all of them. "And of course, let's not forget the three men who made this whole thing possible." I started clapping, and everyone was much quicker to join in this time.

"Alright, everyone," Embry said, soaking up the applause like a sponge. "I say we go back to Sam and Emily's and go tell everyone else what a smashing hit Sydney's plan was. And of course, Emily has all the food." Everyone laughed and rolled their eyes at this, but started dispersing into their respective cars; Collin, Brady Quil and Claire stuck in Embry's taco-mobile, Leah and Seth to her car, leaving me with Paul, not that I minded at all.

Just as I was about to get in Paul's truck, I heard my name, and turned to see Leah, standing right outside her own door, leaning on the hood of her car. She gave me a half-smile, and said, "You did a good job with the guys today. The pack needs a girl like you." She then slid into her car before I could reply. Oddly enough, I think I just earned Leah's approval.

As I buckled up into Paul's truck, I couldn't help feel proud of myself; I was already fitting in. I love La Push.

* * *

**A/N: I realize you all probably want to toast me at this point; three weeks is unacceptable. And alls I have to say in my defense is I'm sorry; tests, finals, projects and class work galore; I got sidetracked by school, the evil place. I hope the extra long chapter makes up for it, and the fact that my G and B keys didn't work for half the chapter.**

**Oh, and also, to halt my belly-aching from last chapter, while I was delayed from actually writing it, I finally figured out some key points to the story that needed to be figured out. Such as how and when Paul and Syd move from friends to more than friends, and when he tells her the big secret. Oh, and I also figured out about when Sydney's big secret comes out, though you may not know what that is for a little while, but I've been dropping subtle hints.**

**Again, I'm soooooo sorry for the delay, but please, review. Tell me what you think. Was it good? Was it bad? Should I be put in front of a firing squad for this monstrosity? Tell me your favorite line; your favorite scene. And above all, tell me what I'm screwing up. :) Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Alright, I write this author's note before I even start the chapters, and then go back and tweak them later if something in my other author's note clashes, or I change my mind. But I'm going to start using my top A/N to answer anonymous reviews that I feel do need an answer.**

**Erin: Paul is going to be jealous of Embry and Seth's easy friendship with Sydney, but Seth would never ask Sydney out because he knows Paul's imprinted on her; hell, he was there when it happened. The way I imagine her finding out is far my exciting and blood pumping, in my opinion. She probably won't found out till the next chapter, or the one after that, depending on how far I get with these next two chapters. Thanks for the review. :)**

**Songs:**

**All or Nothing - Athena Cage  
Beauty and the Beast - Jump 5  
Follow Me - 3OH!3 (ft. Neon Hitch)  
In My Head - Jason Derülo  
Love Like Woe - The Ready Set  
One Week - Barenaked Ladies  
Shake It - Metro Station  
Tangled Up in Me - Skye Sweetnam  
What Hurts the Most - Cascada  
Your Love is my Drug - Ke$ha  
**

Chapter 5

One Week

* * *

I've now lived in La Push for two weeks. Last week was... fantastic. I'd spent almost all my time with the pack, and I'd spent two days with my parents, going to an orphanage in Seattle, and we'd actually found two; a set of twins that mom, dad and I adored. Leo and Raf; I think their mom might have had a bit of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle obsession, seeing as Raf was short for Raphael and Leo was, of course, short for Leonardo. But they were both adorable. They had dark brown hair, and they were medium in skin tone. Not sun-bronzed like Mom and Dad, but not super pale like me.

We were actually going to bring them to our house next week to show them around; my mom was already setting up their room. She called it nesting, and dad and I were all for it if it kept her busy until the boys got here. Mom had one into mothering mode, and the last time she'd done that - when they were waiting to go to court for the official adoption hearing - she'd actually made me a new dress; hand made, beautiful, clinched around my waist, light blue, tulle skirt; absolutely gorgeous.

Mom loved to pamper, and since she'd gotten the news that they might be Leo and Raf's foster parents, she'd been preparing extravagant meals for dad and I, which we'd eaten gratefully, not wanting to upset her; mom was rather like a pregnant woman when she went overboard like this, and you do not want to evoke the wrath of Missy LeHaye.

But that was last week. This week was... awful. I hadn't gotten a phone call from anyone, except for one text from Kim, telling me that the little get together they were having at Emily's had been canceled, though she failed to specify why, and when I had called to ask, she didn't pick up. I saw Claire in math, but she always stared at her notebook and away from me. She also avoided me at lunch; in fact, I hadn't seen her at lunch at all for the past week.

But even more odd than the girls' behaviors was the guys' - or their lack of behavior, I should say. I'd been over at Em's Saturday night, and we'd all been having a great time. Paul drove me home - as always - and that was it. The only odd thing about the whole night was when I was woken up by the sound of a wolf howling really close by. But we lived in Washington, near the forest, where wolves were prominent, so even that hadn't really shocked me; more startled me. But the next day, I called Seth and there was no answer, so I called Embry, who also didn't answer. I hadn't seen any of them since.

Today, there was no school, so there wasn't any automatic excuse for me to be out of the house. I didn't really feel like surfing, I still couldn't get ahold of anyone; a walk down the beach seemed like a good idea, for some reason. The clouds were a heavy veil over the sun, so I wasn't too worried about a sunburn, and forwent the sunscreen; slipped on a pair of jeans, a green tank-top and a black jacket and I was out the door.

I clutched onto my phone as I walked; I don't know why. I had pockets, and it hadn't gone off in a week. I don't know why I thought holding onto it with all my might would somehow make it ring and make it be one of them. Sometimes my logic is screwy. And sometimes my instinct is right on.

My phone rang, screaming Leah's ring-tone at me; 'Hot n Cold' by Katy Perry. I looked at the screen of my little phone, reading the message. 'Paul smashed his phone on accident, and says to tell you not to do anything stupid. ~ Leah.' I tried to send a reply message, but it told me the phone I was trying to call was out of service area, which meant that either Leah had turned her phone off, or she'd gotten out of a service area really quick; somehow, I was thinking it was the first option. She didn't want me to reply.

Paul had told her to tell me not to do anything stupid. That was ridiculous. Me? Do something stupid? Hahahahaha... well, actually, that was pretty spot on. Stupid smug jackass of a hottie. "Well, if you really don't want me to do something stupid," I sang, walking across a large board of drift wood, "then you should have told me yourself."

I purposefully veered off the beachy path, where there were a load of people, tourists and locals alike, and started heading for the edge of the trees. The trees cast threatening shadows over an already darkened forest floor, but, regardless, I slipped in through the tree-line, wrapping my jacket tighter around myself. It was eerie how the trees' shadows all stretched across the ground, creating a large shadow monster all along the forest floor.

I walked around for what seemed forever. The trees were thicker the farther in I went, but I kept going. There was a wolf howl to my right, and it sounded like the poor thing was in great, great pain. I decided to rest a while, sitting on a fallen tree. And just as I had predicted, a wolf came out of the bushes with a limp not two minutes later. I saw that it had a bear trap clamped around his foot, and I was instantly repulsed by the sight of his paw mangled like that. I turned towards the wolf, holding out my hand for him to smell, whispering, "It's okay; I won't hurt you." I am told I have a very lulling voice, but animals are all about smell.

The wolf silently approached me, limping to keep all the weight off its injured foot. Hit cold, wet nose touched my hand, and I smiled. "You smell different from any other," the wolf mused aloud to himself, and I closed my eyes; ah, the insanity never does end. "More earthy and animalistic than any human, but less so than any other animal."

I frowned to myself, and absently pulled the neck of my shirt up so that I could smell it, and as I did so, the wolf watched me. My shirt smelled like vanilla, which was the scent of my body wash, shampoo, conditioner and perfume. How did I smell earthy. I gave the wolf a perplexed look. "How do I smell earthy?" I asked, finally caving into the desire. "The only thing I smell is vanilla."

The wolf watched me for a moment more, his silence deafening as trees swayed overhead. Finally, he spoke. "You can understand me?" he asked, and I nodded. "How?"

"My guess is as good as yours," I said with a shrug, trying to play it off, but it still had me a little bit freaked. How would you like to wake up and suddenly hear everything and anything an animal might really wish to commute to you? "I had an accident about a year back, and when I came to, I could speak to and understand animals. Doctors tried to diagnose it as mild hallucinations, but I know its real." And I did know it was real. Animals had a way of speaking without even making a sound, and it was amazing. I'd been gifted with the ability to understand what they were saying, and yeah, it was a little bit scary, but it was so... awesome at the same time.

He seemed to understand what I was saying. He nodded his head once; a slow, graceful motion. He shifted on three of his paws, making sure to keep the mangled one off the forest floor. "What might I call you, oddling?" he asked me, his slow, gravely voice sounding wise.

I considered offering my hand, but decided against it, considering the circumstances. "I'm Sydney; Sydney LeHaye." I settled for bowing my head; a clear sign of respect. "What should I call you?" I asked, actually curious. Some animals named themselves based on human names, but some did not name themselves at all. It was quite interesting to me because, as it seemed, whatever language you might call what the animal - whichever animal it might be, including fish and insects - was speaking was translated, in my mind, to English.

The wind whipped his golden brown fur around, tearing at my jacket. "You may call me Rift, Sydney." The way he said my name, so clear, was enchanting. Rift; I'd heard animals use it before, though I could never figure out what the appeal behind that name would be. But it was not my place to judge.

I lowered myself onto the muddy ground, thanking Godfrey that I didn't hear a SQUISH sound when I sat down, and my butt still felt dry. I didn't dare push my luck to look and see what I'd actually sat on, and, instead, motioned for Rift to come closer. He complied, purposefully keeping his paw off the ground. As he got closer, he seemed confused on what I wanted him to do, so I gently took hold of his torso, my hands wrapping around his ribcage just behind both his legs, and lowered him onto my lap, his injured paw resting lightly on my left leg, while his head and part of his body rested on my right.

I didn't tell him that it would hurt because animals were not known for handling pain bravely; only when they had to. Instead, I set to work, wedging the man-made bear trap off his paw, and he whimpered and whined, but never made an attempt to get up and run away. "I'm sorry," I whispered into his ear just as I pulled the damn piece of metal off his leg. I saw his eye close in pain as it ripped off tiny ribbons of his flesh, and instantly felt bad for causing him pain.

I threw the bear trap on the ground next to me, cursing is, and tore the bottom half of my shirt off, wrapping it around his paw. Of course, the wind picked up double time as soon as the part of my shirt that was supposed to protect my stomach was gone. But the warm body of Rift kept me from shivering, though the cold air nipped at me. I zipped up my jacket, and wrapped my arms around his neck, deciding to give us both a minute before I started trying to get him to the vet for some real medical treatment. It was quite obvious that my mediocre services would not suffice for such a painful wound.

I sat there in the forest with Rift. We would occasionally speak, but mostly, it was silent. He was in pain and I was so warm; neither of us wanted to move from the spot. The subject of both our families came up, and Rift simply stated that his pack was his family; he had no mate or children.

I don't know how long we had been there; just sitting against the log, him on my lap, keeping me warm. I checked my phone, but found it had died in the time we'd been here; my parents had probably tried to call me once or twice, but they both knew I wasn't the best at answering my phone when it rang; I had it on vibrate half the time, or the speaker was blasting into my leg, and I couldn't hear it ring. I honestly couldn't say I was planning on moving any time soon; Rift being on my legs had caused them to fall asleep, and I was starting to feel pretty sleepy myself.

But the loud crack sound that resounded just to my left washed all thoughts of sleep from my mind.

On instinct, I tried to stand up, forgetting Rift in that split second of panic, but he was quickly brought to my attention once more when my legs wouldn't budge. Rift himself, had raised his head and was no staring at a brush, very close to us, his teeth bared and a low growl rumbling through his chest. I hadn't realized how dark it had gotten, and the edges of the trees glared black at me, and I strained to see what I could not.

Green leaves rimmed in black rustled, and I found myself terrified; scared as I had not been since I was a small child. I'd been here far too long; it was dark, and the only protector I might have had was crippled with injury. I was, essentially, on my own. And worse, still, I was unable to move; this was truly a nightmare.

No moonlight was able to fight its way through the dense layer of leaves over head, and, more than likely, an entirely too thick layer of clouds as well; it was a miracle I could see anything at all. I had the strong urge to just close my eyes and wait for it to be over, but my spirits lifted a little bit when the weight of Rift was lifted off my legs; I could get up. And I did. I scrambled to get up off the ground, the decaying leaves beneath my feet slipping and crunching, making it impossible to do so quietly or easily for that matter.

The darkened leaves moved, and a figure emerged from the brush. I couldn't really make out his features, but I could tell that he was tall; really tall. I didn't know what I was going to do, and I was, quite honestly, scared out of my senses. But I froze when an all too familiar voice rang out in the dark; "Sydney?"

I hadn't realized it, but I'd put my arms up in front of me in a defensive motion, but I slowly lowered them as I squinted and took a step forward, trying to make him out. But I'd know that voice anywhere. "Paul."

Paul was in front of me faster than my eyes could track him moving, and suddenly, I could _see _him. Moon light streamed in through a gap in the branches above, casting a ghostly glow on Paul and I. And as the shadows were chased from his strong face, I almost wished they'd come back; he looked absolutely furious. He said nothing, just reached around me, and brought me forward, hugging me to his chest. I felt warm and safe, like I had with Rift but this just felt _right. _I couldn't even describe how it felt, being in his arms like that.

"I told you not to do anything stupid." He said it levelly and with no inflection or indication to the anger that I knew was just boiling beneath the surface. His arms stayed around me, but tightened slightly. I didn't try to pull away, or move even; just rested my head against his chest, treasuring the feeling of his warmth and closeness. "I'm pretty sure sitting in the forest all alone at night qualifies as stupid."

I closed my eyes, and sighed. There were a thousand and one things I wanted to say to him, but only one would make it past my lips.

"I'm sorry."

-Forever His-

I was curled up in the corner of my seat in Paul's truck. The look on his face hadn't faded, and his fingers clenched around the steering wheel so tightly, I feared it might snap in his grasp. Somehow, I'd persuaded him to carry Rift to the truck and put him the bed to get him to the vet for some real help; we hadn't spoken a word since. I stared out the window, marveling at how far I'd really gone from my house without even realizing it.

Paul was the first to break the silence. "What were you doing out there?"

In the silence, I'd been thinking about the last week, and it had made me a little angry, and so when he asked, I was tempted to just give him the silent treatment - but something inside me didn't seem to be up to it. So, I guess, subconsciously, I decided that being a massive bitch would be the next best thing. "I got tired of being alone." I snapped, severely irritated.

His expression didn't changed, but he shifted his grasp on the steering wheel. He wouldn't look at me, and his eyes were set on the road so fiercly that I thought he might burn a hole in the pavement. There was another silence, and I decided that I would let him break it again. This was his fault - or so I'd convinced myself - and I was going to make him suffer for it. We passed by the road that led to my house, and I could see it, my parents bedroom lights on, as well as the room that would host the twins; my mom was probably in there now, rearranging everything and assuring herself that I was okay.

Finally, he looked at me, his expression still unchanged but his eyes much softer. I glared back, and then turned away from him, staring straight ahead. I felt his gaze on the side of my face for a moment longer, but he had to look back at the road, and he did. Now I glared at the road in front of us, but momentarily directed my glance to the side mirror that reflected Rift, his head resting on the edge of the bed of the truck. We were taking him to the vet before we were taking me home; I'd made Paul promise.

He sighed gruffly, and I abruptly turned to face him, still glaring. He turned to face me too, and he looked so frustrated. "Sydney..." he started off, but stopped, sighing out in frustration again. There was something holding him back; that same something that held Seth back, it seemed. I can't even describe how angry he looked with himself.

I stared at him, trying to decipher his thoughts; his emotions. It was an impossible task, and as each second passed by, his expression became more and more unreadable; he became more and more closed off. I could feel my expression and resolve softening, though I willed it not too. It was almost like... I couldn't stop it. I couldn't help but feel for him, no matter how I tried. It was that pull I'd felt the first day I'd met him, manifesting itself in another form, but still pulling me to him, just as it had that first day. I felt the strongest urge to comfort him, though I resisted out of my own stubbornness.

But before my will could break, and I could cave into the desire, we were parked in front of of the only veterinarian's office for several miles. It was just at the edge of the border between La Push and Forks. He sighed and turned the key, shutting off the truck, and pulled it out of the ignition, and opened the door. I followed, opening the door and taking off my seat belt and following him round to the back of the truck where Rift was laid out in the bed.

The office itself wasn't very large; about the size of most houses in the area. It was also fairly generic looking, with reddened brick walls and double glass doors under the sign that announced that it was called Anima Medical. The parking lot branched off the main road that led to Forks, so it was impossible to miss, and the lot itself looked brand new.

Paul dropped the back end of the truck down, reached in, and grabbed Rift, who did not look at all happy. "Sydney," he started, catching my attention immediately, "thank you for all of your help. I hope to see you again."

I nodded, smiling slightly at him; I could honestly say that I'd been happy, just talking to him. "It was no problem," I replied to him, not minding if I looked a total lunatic to Paul at the moment. I stepped forward and hugged him around the neck, his grey fur coarse, but soft in the same instant. "You will see me again, Rift. I'll make sure of it." I told him, sure that I would be able to keep my promise to him. I was nearly certain that nothing would keep me from seeing him.

I pulled away and smiled at him, and Paul, giving me a weird sort of look, turned and started walking toward the double glass doors. I followed him, keeping my eye trained on the ill-fashioned green splint that used to be my shirt, and was now soaked through with blood. I almost couldn't bear to look at it.

I don't know how Paul managed to carry him so easily. I mean, Rift was longer than his than his torso, and he wasn't exactly light - I should know - but Paul made it look so easy. He even opened and got the both of them through the double glass doors like it was no sweat. If I didn't know that each of the guys in the pack could bench two hundred or above, I really would have been shocked. The receptionist was gone at this point, since it was nearing midnight, but Paul had assured me that the vets would still be in, so we walked on past the front desk, and the waiting room. The hallway to one of the three examination rooms was bare, and cold; impersonal. And the three examination rooms themselves were closed and locked up, but that didn't seem to phase Paul, as he turned a corner to where they kept any animals that needed over night observation. Two people, a man and a woman, stood in the room that was full of yapping dogs and pups and mewing kittens. They seemed to be fascinated by two x-ray images on a screen.

Paul walked right in and set Rift on the table, clearing his throat to alert the two people to our presence. The both turned around, and to my surprise, the woman looked a lot like... me. Not in the literal way, of course. She wasn't the usual tan that I had become accustomed to seeing, and she had black hair like I did, though she was much taller, kept her hair shorter, and, in my opinion, was much more beautiful than I. The other was a man who had short, greying black hair and was wrinkling.

A smile spread across the woman's face. "Paul," she said warmly, then seeing me, offering me a warm smile as well. "What are you two doing here so late." She didn't even seem to find it weird that I was there, or that there was a wolf on her table. In fact, she actually walked over to her table and started examining Rift like any other ordinary household animal out there.

"Sydney, this is Erin and George Knight, Kim's parents. Erin, George, this is Sarah's niece, Sydney." I was a little shocked; the woman looked nothing like Kim; Kim had extremely high cheekbones, and hers were normal, Kim's nose was pointed at the end, while hers was rounded, Kim had the physique of a supermodel; Erin looked like she enjoyed a good chocolate shake once in a while. Two completely gorgeous woman, and there is not one thing I could say I saw a similarity in. Though, I could definitely see Kim in her dad; the eyes, the nose and height.

Erin, who was currently unwrapping my make-shift splint, looked over at me. "So you're Sydney, the one that Kim and Brady never shut up about." She laughed, and turned back to her work, though I was shocked. I could see Brady in her, definitely, but not Kim. Brady had her eyes, both shape and color-wise. I turned to Paul with a confused look.

Paul sighed, knowing what I was thinking, probably. "Kim and Brady are step-siblings." Both of the Vets looked up at him oddly. "It's not like its some big secret, or anything," he clarified, "but we don't really talk about it much because Kim's moved in with Jared and all, and we never bring it up." Mr. Knight seemed to understand this, and instantly went back to filling a syringe with - or so I assumed were - pain meds. Just seeing the needle made my skin crawl uncomfortably.

I hate needles with a passion.

And Paul has amazingly good timing, as always. "Well, thank you for taking care of him, Erin, George, but Syd and I have got to get going." He offered them a smile and I tried to ignore the little skip my heart did at the sound of my nickname on his lips; he hadn't called me Syd in a week. "Bye." He turned and walked out of the room, and I called a similar farewell before following after him.

I nearly had to run to keep up with him and his long strides, and I tried calling his name time after time, but he ignored it and kept walking, ahead of me. He made it outside the little building before I did, and by the time I got out - I tripped over my shoelace, if that wasn't embarrassing enough - he had disappeared inside the truck, and my door was wide open, waiting for me to get in. I was slightly confused by this gesture; he'd been really cold towards me all night, but opening my door... Was he starting to forgive me? I tired not to over think it, and walked towards the truck, jumping in and closing the door soundly behind me, looking over at Paul, expecting to see him stone-faced, but instead, found him leaning forward in his seat, head resting on the steering wheel, seat belt cutting into the skin of his neck and turning it white.

He grabbed the steering wheel, each one of his hands on one side of his head, and lifted himself so that he looked at me, each of those brown orbs piercing me so that my breath caught in my chest, the intensity burning me.

"No more games, Sydney. I want to know what the hell is going on."

I knew what he meant, and no matter how much I wished I didn't have to, I knew I did. I couldn't deny it, and I couldn't deny the urge I had to tell him... everything. Absolutely everything. So, taking a deep breath, I stared at the dash, and slowly said, "I can talk to animals."

* * *

She couldn't even look at me, as she said it. She stared straight in front of her, and I wished, more than anything, that she'd look at me. This imprint was killing me, quite literally. This last week had been _hell_. No matter what I did, Sydney was the center of my thoughts. Even when that damn bloodsucker had been right in front of me, I'd been distracted, thinking maybe there was another; maybe it was going to hurt My Sydney. I'd let it get away. Killing me.

And now, she couldn't even bear to look at me with those beautiful blue eyes of hers. I wished I could tell her everything; tell her that, even though she was unusual, she wasn't the only one, she wasn't alone. I know that was how I felt when I'd first started changing, even with Sam and Jared in my head, despite what they were telling me; despite the fact that I wasn't the only one, I was still alone. I couldn't even imagine what it must be like to be in her position; the only one, and she still has no idea about how it all works, to be an outcast for something she can't control; ultimately alone.

I didn't know what I should say. What could I say to her? 'I may not be able to talk to wolves, but I can change into one.' Yeah, cause that would go over real well. I'd always said that I'd never imprint, and the guys had all agreed, though they'd never admit it to me now, but I was wishing I'd known her forever, like Quil had Claire, so that it would be natural for us.

Natural as breathing.

But I'd never been that lucky, when it had come to girls. Sure, I'd had plenty of girlfriends, but I'd sure as hell never been in love, and all the girls I'd ever been with were the type that weren't looking for anything serious, nohow. But Sydney was sure as hell different than any girl I'd ever been with. She was... special. She was small, petite, delicate, and yet, not. I couldn't even find a word in the dictionary to define Sydney - I'd actually checked, too - she was just so... her. But one word had come as close to defining her as any ever would - _Perfect._

I couldn't tell her any of this. It was tearing me up from the inside out to keep everything from her, but I had to, for now. I had to do it at the right time in the right way because... Sydney was the best thing to ever happen to me, and I'll be damned if I was going to scare her off. That was the last thing I wanted.

And like that, my mind was made up. I turned on the car, and backed out of the lot, getting on the main road and driving way faster than was necessary - or legal, but whatever - because I wanted Sydney, more than anything, to know that she would never be alone; that she would always have the pack, whether she wanted us or not, and the only way I could think of to do that for her it to show her.

I dug into my pants pocket, still staring straight ahead at the road, and got my cell phone, hitting the voice command button. My phone's electronic voice sounded, 'Name of call recipient.' I didn't even have to think about it. "Sarah Parish." I said, causing Sydney to look up at me with an odd expression. I tried to ignore it so I wouldn't explain myself. My phone set off ringing after it had verified that was who I'd meant to call, and, on the fourth ring, Sarah answered with a surprisingly chipper hello. "Hey, Sarah," I greeted, in a rush so that Syd wouldn't try to stop me. "Can you call Missy for me, and tell her that Sydney's going to spend the night with the pack?"

Sarah didn't even seem slightly surprised or even phased by my request. "Sure thing, sweetie," she assured me, and I breathed a mental sigh of relief. "Collin's still over there, anyhow; I'll call him and make sure he doesn't let anyone leave quite yet." I heard the smile in her voice, and couldn't help smiling a bit myself.

I thanked her and hung up, avoiding looking at Sydney as I continued to drive, steeling myself so that I wouldn't cave to her every request like I knew I was going to want to. Damn imprint; I've seen what it does to guys like me... well, somewhat like me, anyway. I probably have a bit more willpower than Jared and Quil, but even Sam acts like a whipped puppy around Emily, just as I know I've started to around Sydney, but I just can't help it.

But I finally willed myself to look at her, and she was staring right at me, a look of unamusement turning her lips down in a light frown, and her eyes sparkling with that usual defiant glimmer that she got. "You're kidnapping me." she stated simply. I nodded, vaguely keeping an eye on the road. She raised an eyebrow at me. "You realize I could jump out of the moving truck, right?" she asked me, and I had to hold back my chuckle.

"You won't." I said surely, and she scoffed.

I wouldn't let you.

* * *

**A/N: Time finished 10:01 at night. Haha! I spent a lot of time on this one, revising how everything was said, trying to figure out how much I should include and how lengthy it should be. I wanted the way they found out to be... astounding. I'm sorry that her power isn't more special, and that I didn't explain it very well, but I'm trying to keep this story within a certain realm, though I don't know what I would call that realm, and her being any more special would toss it right out of that realm.**

**Anyhow, Jassy is exhausted, but I'mma start the next chappie anyway, just because I am so freakin eager to get it out. I am hoping to get this next chapter up in the next several days, but I make no promises because, though I know how most of the chapter is going to go, I haven't yet figured some of the finer details yet, and it's the tiny details that make a story really shine. :)**

**So, review for Jassy? Please. Was it good? Bad? Did it burn your eyes? Should Jassy be banned from writing? What was your favorite line? Your favorite scene? Your favorite character? Your favorite couple? Why the hell is Jassy asking all these questions? Cause she's tired.**

**Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Here little kiddies, on my lap, guess who's back with a brand new rap. Not Jassy, and not even Eminem, but I am back with a brand new chapter! Alright, not nearly as exciting - or funny - as a new rap, but I can't write music (believe me, I've tried) so we've both got to just deal with this. I know, it sucks, but I'm hoping that the content of this next chapter makes up for it.**

**Paul: I think it does.  
Jassy: Of course you do, but your opinion doesn't count.  
Paul: Why not?  
Jassy: Cause you're biased, obviously.**

**And also, as my opening suggests, I've been listening to a lot of Eminem, so I'm sorry if my writing is a little more vulgar in terms of language, but I acclimate to whatever I'm listening to, so... yeah. But I'll try to keep it clean-ish. Well, as clean as I usually do, which, admittedly, is not very clean, but I try. Anyway, on with the story.**

**Songs:**

**American Idiot - Green Day  
Clocks - Coldplay  
Cry Me a River - Justin Timberlake  
Don't Trust Me - 3OH!3  
Don't Want to Think About You - Simple Plan  
Follow Me Down - 3OH!3 (feat. Neon Hitch)  
Here I am - Bryan Adams  
Just Lose it - Eminem  
Love Like Woe - The Ready Set  
The Real Slim Shady - Eminem  
Tired of Being Sorry - Enrique Iglesias**

Chapter 6

Not Quite Alone

* * *

I wasn't ticked, that was for sure. I was relieved to have them back, were I to be honest, but I was still trying to keep up a facade of being angry at Paul, at least. They all left me alone without a word; I should at least be able to pretend I was mad at them. But... why was is so hard to actually be mad. If I was really mad about anything, it was the fact that I couldn't _be_ mad. Which really makes no sense, but since when is sense relevant to me?

So I sat back in my seat, and didn't follow through on my threat, just as Paul had predicted I wouldn't. Besides, was it really kidnapping if you weren't totally unwilling? I had to admit, him calling my aunt had been a surprising, sneaky, underhanded way of getting me to do what he wanted, but it still didn't make me not want to go with him. I still wanted to see everyone.

He pulled the truck up outside Sam and Em's, and without even waiting for Paul to turn the ignition, my door was open and I was out of the car, heading towards their front door. I was only a couple steps from the front porch when the door opened, revealing a sight for sore eyes; Embry, shirtless, as always, and grinning at me broadly. "Sydney!" he exclaimed, snatching me up into his arms. I sputtered a little bit at the quick constriction around me, but my smile didn't falter once. "Hot damn, girl, I haven't seen you in a week!"

He set me on the ground, grabbed my hand and dragged me inside. I literally didn't even have time to be mad at him, or tell him that it was his fault that he hadn't seen me in a week. Before I could say anything, I was standing in the kitchen where Collin was currently blocking off the back door in an attempt to keep everyone from leaving, which was quite brave considering the very pissed looking Leah that was standing directly in front of him, demanding to be let out. He stared at her, stoic, and probably trying to hide the hint of fear that was bound to pop up whenever you were facing down Leah Clearwater. No one seemed to have noticed my entrance yet; they were all focused on the show before them. "Hey, Leah," I greeted, causing several people to look over in my direction.

"Hey, Sydney," she replied, sounding flippant and uncaring, not even turning to glance at me. "Now you better move your sorry ass, Collin Parish, or I'm gonna..." She trailed off, turning to me, looking stunned. Collin looked overly smug as her expression switched from stunned to understanding, and she muttered a dejected, "Oh."

Only then did I notice that _everyone _was there, but that was because they all rushed me. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone; all eight of the guys - since I'm not including Paul, at the moment - Emily, Claire, Kim and Leah. I was kinda surprised that Sam and Em's place didn't explode from the sheer amount of people crammed inside it. Everyone greeted me, hugging me until I was sure I had about ten thousand bruises, and it was like... this last week had never happened. Claire talked to me like she hadn't been avoiding me in school for the last week, and the boys acted like they hadn't missed a single day.

I was more confused than ever.

I was about to ask what was going on, but my train of thought was interrupted by a certain voice. "Syd," he said, and I turned to face him. Paul looked tired; he had circles under his eyes that I hadn't noticed before, his hair was ruffled and he just looked... worn. More worn than any twenty year old should. And the way he was staring at me with those eyes - I felt my anger break even further, to my annoyance. "I think you should tell them."

You know, if it had been anyone else or if I had been any angrier, I would have been furious at this statement. I would have said, 'Who the hell are you to tell me how to live my life? You have no idea what it's like to be so different; to be under the pressure of keeping a part of yourself from the ones you love most.' But it was Paul, and my anger was slowly chipping away.

I sighed, and everyone looked at me expectantly, though what they were expecting, I couldn't really tell you. I hated this part, telling everyone that I was a freak. I hated my gift as much as I loved it. I'd never met anyone else like me and very few were accepting once they knew that you could talk to their goldfish. I was feeling the pressure, and tried to start, but when my mouth opened, I couldn't make anything come out; silent as the grave. I don't know what would have happened next were it not for the fact that the moment I started feeling it the most, I also felt another hand grab my own and squeeze it lightly. I turned to see Emily there, next to me, her pregnant belly poking out like it was nobody's business. "It's okay, Sydney, you can tell us. I can promise you that it won't affect the way we think of you."

You say that now, I thought somewhat bitterly, but her reassurance had given me that little shove I needed, and damn had I needed it. Taking a deep breath, I decided quick and painless was in my best interest, and so, in a short jumble of words, I blurted, "I can talk to animals." I don't know why, but once I'd gotten it out, I closed my eyes, wincing, waiting for the condescending remarks about my sanity and degrading tests.

There was a short, stunned silence. I expected a lot of things. What I didn't expect was, "That is so cool!" and a thousand sounds of agreement. I slowly opened my eyes to see everyone grinning and looking kind of amazed. But it was Claire that bounced up to me and hugged me around the waist. "I can't believe it. That is sooo awesome."

I sat down next to Paul on one of the many seats they had throughout the house, and answered questions about my ability, but never once did the question if I really had it; if I said I did, I did to them, and that was probably the best part. Kim asked me for some help with her birds because it seemed something was wrong with one of them, and she figured someone talking to it would be a lot easier than the poor little bird getting probed and stuck, even if it were by her own parents.

A little while later - actually, about 2:30 in the morning - Emily announced that we'd be having a pack sleepover tonight, and that they'd be drawing for spots. I looked over to Paul for explanation. He smiled at me, looking more tired and worn than he had earlier, but happy anyway. "Sam and Em host a couple of these pack sleepovers a month, and since their house is so small, they don't have enough room for everyone to get some sort of bed, or even really for everyone to get a space on the floor unless they want to get stepped on, so we came up with a system for splitting up the sleeping areas; floor and bedded area. We have everyone's name in a jar, and we draw for the beds."

He gave me a smile and we both got up and walked to where everyone was gathered around Emily and her jar. I couldn't see a thing, and even though there was really nothing to see, I jumped to anyway. That is, until Paul picked me up and lifted me above the other guys heads so that I could see; good thing the ceilings in this place were so high.

Emily stuck her hand into an old looking pottery jar, kinda like the ones you would put cookies in, and pulled out a small, folded retangular piece of paper. She unfolded it and said, "And the winner of the guest room for tonight is Kim. Pick your roommate Kim." She rolled her eyes, most likely already knowing who it was going to be. Well, we all did, so it was no surprise when she grabbed Jared's hand and started leading him back to the hallway that led to the four bedrooms and one of the two bathrooms this house had.

Sam grinned and started to draw for another name. "And tonight's winner of the lonely love seat is... Quil." The caused everyone to start laughing, and not really knowing why, I joined in, not wanting to look like an idiot at my first pack sleepover. Same threw something that was bundled up at his head, and Quil barely caught it, glaring at Sam, and grumbling as he went to settle in on the shorter couch.

"Recliner," Em announced as she reached her hand in yet again and pulled out another little white sheet of paper. "And the recliner goes to Paul." Paul pumped one of his fists in the air, still holding me up with the other arm, and then readily caught the blue bundle that Sam sent flying in his direction. But he stayed there, still raising me up instead of setting me down and going to settle in on the recliner like I knew he probably wanted to. "And last but not least, the fold out couch goes to... Sydney." There were a couple sounds of disappointment as people waited for Sam to throw them their sleeping bag. "Syd, you can pick a bunk-mate if you want." Emily reminded me, causing Paul to tense.

I absently tried to soothe him, rubbing my hand over his clothed, rock hard chest and smiling. "Claire," I said, and Paul relaxed. Claire immediately started doing a dorky victory dance and went straight up to Brady and sung a made up 'in your face,' song; it was really, really entertaining.

We all made our way into the living room while Sam and Emily made their way to their bedroom, and after the assorted goodnights had been exchanged, we all started settling into our designated areas for the night. I heard Seth and Leah fighting for a certain spot, and after losing, Seth, still glaring in the general direction of his sister, came and settled on the ground next to my side of the fold away couch. Which happened to be right between the recliner where Paul was sleeping, and me.

Paul was under a thin, navy blue blanket and was reclined all the way back, and I knew he wanted to fall right asleep, but he still looked at me through tired eyes. "Goodnight, Sydney." he said, bringing the blanket even closer to his neck and struggling to keep his eyes open.

I giggled. "Good Night Paul."

-Forever His-

My eyes flew open, and I sat up quickly. The fold away made a loud creak sound, but I didn't hear anything besides Seth snoring to my right, as well as Paul for that matter. There was a little bit of moonlight streaming in through the window, and, careful to dodge Seth, I walked over to it. The moon was resting just behind the treeline, only the top of it showing its face, and I knew none of us had been asleep very long. So what had woken me up so suddenly?

I was still staring at the window when I heard it; a slight moaning whimper coming from down the hall. I turned back to stare at the hallway, the moonlight giving my skin an eerie and other-worldly glow. I slowly made my way around Brady's unconscious form and down the hallway. My sleeping patterns were a little odd. Sometimes, it would take a train to wake me up, and others, alls it would take is a brush of a feather. The sound wasn't loud, but it had woken me, so now I had to know what it was.

I heard it again, and swiftly stepped over Seth's legs, which were tangled in his sleeping bag; he was going to have fun getting up in the morning. I brushed right past Paul in his recliner, and because his hand was hanging off the edge, walked a little closer than was smart. His fingers brushed my waist and I shivered as sparks ran up my spine.

I was about to step over Leah, when I distinctly felt something wrap around my ankle. My first and only though? 'Oh holy shit.' But when I looked down to see what it was, I saw Leah, leaning on one arm, looking up at me, her other arm outstretched so that her fingers could clamp around my ankle. I could not even describe the relief I felt when I saw Leah shake her bangs out of her eyes. Slowly, her fingers unwrapped themselves, and she pushed herself up so that she stood directly in front of me, her 5'11" towering over my 5'4". "You heard that?" Leah asked me with a raised eyebrow, as it she couldn't believe it. Not this crap again. Yes, my hearing is freakishly good; can we get over it now? I knew it was a little harsh for a simple question, but a tired Sydney is not a pleasant Sydney.

But instead of voicing my internal rant, I gave a simple nod. "Yeah," I confirmed, not particularly feeling like pissing anyone off so late at night, particularly Leah. "It came from down there." I gestured down the pitch black hallway, and Leah nodded.

She and I slowly crept down the hall. The door to the room Jared and Kim were sleeping in was shut tight, locked too. There was a short pause between the noises; seven to eight minutes, actually. But then it sounded again, and we found the source - Sam and Emily's bedroom. The sound was distinctly female, and I was overwhelmed with worry for Emily, for some odd reason. I knew she would be fine with Sam right next to her. He'd never let anything happen to her.

Which is why I was so shocked when Sam came barreling out of the room, looking panicked, and only in a pair of pajama pants, though that shouldn't have surprised me. None of the guys around here liked to wear shirts for some odd reason. I don't think he saw Leah and I because he raced right past us, mumbling to himself quietly.

I turned to Leah as Sam disappeared behind the corner of the hall. "Do you think he's finally gone off his rocker?" She shrugged in response, and we both turned back to face the wall that Sam had just rounded.

He came back around, and I was seriously wondering how he hadn't woken anyone else up. He had a little tote slung over his shoulder and a list and his hands. He was looking over the list, still mumbling, and he came to a stop, directly in front of us, and looked up. "How long have you two been up?" Leah and I looked at each other with wide eyes, while Sam stood there, looking tired, disoriented and doe-eyed.

"SAM!"

Before I could even register, he was back inside his room, and when I peaked inside, he was picking Em up. Em was sweaty, breathing heavily and had one hand on her pregnant belly, wincing. Oh, shit. I grabbed Leah, and moved her away from the door as Sam came through, Emily in his arms and heading for the door. "The babies are coming," I breathed, and Leah looked at me, even more wide eyed than before. I could feel the massive smile taking over my face. "The babies are coming!" I repeated excitedly, jumping up and down a little bit in the process, and as Leah registered what I was saying - what was happening - a smile split her face too. She stuttered for a second, and then let out a high-pitched, excited scream that I didn't know she was capable of, but I shrieked with her.

That woke Claire and Seth up. Claire sat up, wide-eyed, "What? What is it? Is someone trying to break in?" She looked all around, seeming extremely confused. Seth on the other hand, sleepily opened his eyes, and stretched, happening to kick Collin in the head, though he didn't seem to feel too sorry about it at all.

Collin jerked up in his sleeping bag, clutching his head. "Dude, what the hell?"

A pillow flew through the air, hitting Collin straight in the back of the neck, and he jerked in the direction of the projectile, which had come from where Brady was lying on the floor. "You know, some of us are still trying to sleep." I wasn't even sure when someone had switched the light on. Things were starting to move faster and faster.

Collin grabbed the pillow and threw it back at Brady, but missed by a mile and hit Embry, who was up on his feet before I could blink. And I did blink, several times, to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Collin stood up too, and started apologizing, but Embry didn't seem to care too much for apologies. He charged Collin, slamming into him with a force I thought no teenage boy would be capable of, and pushed him back - in my direction. Collin was just about to slam into me when someone grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the way. I landed against something that was both soft and hard, and since I'd felt the sensation many times before, I didn't even have to look up to know that Paul had just saved me.

I looked up to see him smiling down at me, him still in the recliner and me curled up against his warm chest, on top of him. He seemed to find this whole ordeal rather funny because I could feel his chest rumbling with laughter beneath me. He put one finger up in front of his lips - the classic 'shhhh' sign - and pointed. I looked over to where he was pointing and almost busted a gut.

Quil was still sleeping on the lonely loveseat, as Sam had called it, but that wasn't the funny part. The funny part was that Quil's torso rested comfortably on the couch, and his but ended right where the other edge of the seat ended, meaning that his legs hung off in an odd fashion. And despite this and the noise, Quil was still sound asleep, not even looking sort of disturbed. His girlfriend seemed to find this rather funny too, cause I saw her nearly rolling on the ground with laughter.

I shifted in my most comfortable spot so that I could face everyone. Collin and Embry were fighting and Brady was watching, looking ready to jump in and break it up if necessary. "Guys!" I yelled, getting most everyone's attention, aside from the still sleeping Quil. "Em's in labor; the babies are coming." I could feel a smile take over my face just saying that.

Leah had already left, I suppose, because as everyone else was scrambling to get to a car, I didn't see hers. Sam's was gone too, though that came as no surprise. Just as I was about to walk out the door, Paul grabbed my wrist, and when I turned, he was motioning at Quil. Ah, so he has a devious side too. I love him.

My face went stone blank at this thought. I love him? Where had that come from. And what was more... it was true, to an extent. Love was definitely what I felt for him. I just wasn't sure what kind of love yet, I guess. I couldn't believe it. But I followed Paul's lead, trying not to let on the little life-changing revelation that had just taken place. I stood next to him behind the couch, putting both hands on the back. "On three, push," he told me, and I nodded, smiling; nothing like a good prank to get you back in the right mind-set. "One, two... three!" We both shoved on the back of the seat, pushing it forward and making Quil sprawl onto the floor.

He didn't give much of a reaction, much to my disappointment. He just got up, rubbing his eyes. "Where are the tacos?" he asked in a groggy, sleep-ridden voice. He stumbled over to the bathroom, and I laughed as Claire sighed dramatically, clearly put out by being held up because of her sleepy boyfriend.

I don't even know what happened to Jake, or when he left.

Paul, on the other hand, was fully awake, and offered me his hand. I gave him an amused look, but took it anyhow, and he started running - slower than was his usual, cause damn, he can run - leading me toward the truck. He opened the door for me, and actually boosted me inside, making me shriek a little in surprise, and before I knew it, he was sitting next time, putting my seat belt on and then his own, giving me a sheepish grin. I'm thinking he was way more excited than I'd ever thought he was. He jammed the keys into the ignition, and floored it.

The drive that was supposed to take approximately twenty-five minutes? We made it in less than fifteen. And it would have been even less if Embry and his taco-mobile hadn't swerved in from around a corner and cut us off, causing us to be caught behind the one and only stop light in all of Forks, just as it turned red. And because it was the only one, of course it took forever to turn green. I was going to kill Embry.

We pulled into the lot, and I had just enough time to click off my seat belt before I was out of the car and dashing across the lot, which was freaking freezing by the way. I almost thought the sliding doors weren't going to open in time, but the parted about a half second before I ran into them, and I dashed through, stopping only when I made it to the waiting room where over half the pack was waiting. I deflated when I saw Embry was not among them, but went and sat down next to Leah who'd already been promised god-mother to little Nicholas Leon with Seth as god-father. Apparently, they chose Seth because he'd helped take care of a little girl that everyone referred to as 'Nessie.' Of course, when I'd heard that, I'd thought, 'Lochness Monster?' When I'd voiced that, Seth had laughed and told me never to tell Bella that, who ever the hell she was.

On the other hand, they hadn't named god-mother to their other little boy, who was, decidedly, Michael Jacob. Michael after Emily's grandfather and Jacob after his god-father, Jake. Sam and Emily hadn't been able to decide on who was god-mother; Claire or Kim. As far as I knew, they were still at ends trying to figure that bit out. I hugged Leah, knowing she was biting her nails - nearly literally - in suspense. She'd been so happy to know they'd chosen her as god-mother. I didn't learn why until I found out Leah was infertile; doctors told her she couldn't have children of her own.

"Hey, Sydney, what'd you do with Paul?" Seth asked as he came to sit on the other side me. I'd learned from a past experience never to let yourself get surrounded by Clearwaters, and squirmed uncomfortably in my seat, almost expecting Sue to pop up somewhere. But he was right, I realized. Paul had never made it to the waiting room, though I could have sworn...

I never got to finish the thought as Paul came strolling down the hall, looking lax, and dragging a reluctant Embry behind him who seemed to trying his damn best to get out of Paul's seemingly loose grip on his shirt, but it was actually probably really strong. Paul wasn't even really trying to pull him along, and the height gave him only a small advantage; this was pure strength. Paul suddenly pulled him forward and flung him into a chair. "Hey, Syd," Paul said with a devious grin, "I found him."

I grinned and catapulted myself out of the chair - the perfect excuse to get out of the Clearwater death-trap. Haha, score one for LeHaye! I came to a halt directly next to Paul who hadn't had to do anything to keep Embry in place. Even Embry knew that trying to escape my wrath was futile. That and it would just get him thrown out of the hospital. "Hey, Embry," I greeted lowly, stroking Paul's bicep with one hand to show my appreciation. He seemed to get my point as he grinned again, shook his head at Embry in pity, and then backed out. I stepped forward to assure that Embry wouldn't try to make a break for it. I leaned down over him and he gulped. "Embry," I sung, "you've been a bad, bad boy." I shook my head, pouting at him. I laid one hand against his strong chest. "You cut us off; nearly caused us to have an accident." I tsked him, and moved my hand up, loosely picking at his collar. "Do you know what I do to bad boys?" I asked him. "Huh?" I fisted my fingers around the material of his collar, making his eyes go wide. I leaned down even further so that my lips rested just next to his ear. "I punish them; I get even." I said it slowly, deliberately - seriously. "Are we understood?" I asked innocently, and I felt him nod slowly, knowing the weight of the situation he was in.

I let go of his collar. "Good, glad that's all cleared up." But when I looked behind me, Leah looked proud, and Claire, who had just arrived, looked at me admiringly with Quil hiding behind her, using her as some sort of human shield. "What?" I asked, laying on the innocence, causing Seth and Paul to laugh.

Leah came up next to me, feighning tears. "I've never been so proud." she said, and then pretended to break down sobbing, leaning on my shoulder, and I laughed. We often played those little games since my big production on the first day. But she soon joined in on the laughter. I was so busy laughing that I nearly missed Sam's entrance into the room, wearing what can only be decribed as a plastic dress, which made me burst into laughter all over again. He even had the matching cap.

"Sam, you realize you don't have to wear that until you're in the actual delivery room, right?" a familiar voice asked, and my earlier fears were confirmed as Sue Clearwater appeared from virtually nowhere, towing her fiance, Charlie Swan, behind her. I'd talked to Charlie very briefly the last time they'd had a bonfire, and found out that he'd been friends with Sue's first husband, Harry, and when Harry died, Charlie kind of started taking care of them, even though his own daughter had kind of been the one taking care of him. As far as I knew, they'd officially gotten together last year, and he'd proposed to her a couple months ago.

Sam, apparently, had not been aware of that, as he ripped the pastel green dress off himself, as well as the cap. "Umm, Em's all settled, and the doctors say people can come in and see her now, but only five at a time. So, since you two probably won't be here long, Sue, Charlie?" They nodded, and walked past him, down the hall to where Emily was. "Sydney, Seth, Leah?" I was shocked that he chose me to be one of the first to see her instead of Jake or even Paul. I nodded mutely and followed him, Seth and Leah down the hall.

Emily looked tired and sweaty, but happy enough to see us. She was having a light conversation with Sue and Charlie - about their wedding, from what I could tell. Leah went over and sat in the chair that was next to her head. Sue and Charlie talked to Sam for a moment, but after that, they left. Upon their departure, Seth and Paul entered the room.

For some reason, I felt oddly out of place. Both Leah and Seth were talking to Emily, trying to make her feel better, talking her through her contractions. Sam, being the good husband he is, held her hand while he talked to Paul and Jake, but whenever he would feel her hand constrict around his, he'd halt the conversation and try and help her through it. I, on the other hand, was pressed to the wall and taking up space. So I left the room and made the walk back down the hall to the waiting room, where Claire waited. At the sight of me, she squealed and sprinted off down the hall.

I sat in a waiting room chair, wondering what the hell I was doing here anymore.

My phone rang, cutting off my train of thought. Kim's ringtone, "Heaven" by DJ Sammy, blasted at my leg, and I silently pulled it out and flipped it open, confused as to why she was calling me. "Hello?" I answered uncertainly.

"Hey, Sydney," she responded, sounding relieved, and staticy, but I'm thinking that was the phone's fault. "Where are you guys? And why is nobody answering their phone?" And then it dawned on me. Jared and Kim had been in the guest bedroom, and no one had bothered to go wake them up. In fact, everyone had probably forgotten they were there. I had to clamp my lips shut to stop the giggles I was dying to emit. "Hello? Earth to Sydney; you still there?"

I swallowed my laughter and sobered up. "Yeah, I'm still here, Kim," I said, attempting to sound normal and non-chalant. "We're actually all at the hospital right now; Em went into labor." I closed my eyes and held the phone away from my ear, waiting for the explosion.

_"WHAT!"_

She sure as hell didn't disappoint. He voice came through so clear, it was almost like she was standing right in front of me. I rubbed my ear as the speaker in my phone squealed, sounding like it was dying, and the poor thing probably was. "Yeah, sorry, bye Kim!" I scrambled to say, hurrying to shut my phone. I caught the beginning of what was surely going to be a threat on my life, but was satisfied not knowing.

My phone went off again a second later, not that I hadn't expected that, but the sound was slow and sluggish and softer than it had been before. I picked up my phone and looked at it sadly. "She killed it." Shit, now I had to buy a new phone. I kissed the screen of my now fried phone and stuffed it in my pocket.

I sat there for a while; people came in and out of Emily's room, switching places. I noticed Leah never came out, but I supposed that was understandable. I even found out that they'd asked her to be in the room for the delivery. The vision of Leah in one of those pastel colored plastic dresses was slightly less humorous than the vision of Sam, but they both certainly had comedic value and blackmail written all over them. I swore I'd get a picture of at least one of them before I left.

But I got bored of just sitting there, waiting for something to happen. Sometimes, labor could take over twenty-four hourse, and I was starting to get stiff, so I got up and decided to wander around the hospital. I must have passed three vending machines, but resisted the urge for Em's sake; the only thing she was allowed to have were those damnable ice chips.

I ended up looking into a room through a big glass window. It was the room where the high risk babies were taken care of; the NICU, otherwise known as the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit. No one ever remembers being in there themselves, if they ever were, but when I was a little girl, my dad told me that if you ever stare into that room, you will never ever be able to forget what you see, and looking into there now, I knew he was right. I had been there, once, I knew. I had been two months too early. And looking into this room now, I don't know how my dad could even stand to see his only daughter like this. I didn't know the people those babies belonged to, and yet, even still, I could barely stand to look at it myself, feel a small fraction of the pain that the parents of these infants were feeling.

One of the baby's moniters started beeping, and I saw one of the numbers on the screen start going down. A doctor yelled, and two other doctors in the room came running, surrounding the baby, covering her from sight. I backed up, horrified at the image before me, and felt one of the most familiar sensations in the world. I turned, hiding my face in Paul's chest, crying a little bit. It was irrational, but I did. I felt his strong arms wrap around me, and he held me there, staying quiet while I cried for this small person that I didn't even know.

"Syd," he whispered softly into my ear, "look." I didn't want to, but something in his tone compelled me to. And when I did, I saw that the baby's heart rate was back up, and whatever that number on the moniter had meant, it was back up. And what was more, the baby was awake, crying and flailing in its little bed. And this time, the tears were happy ones. He hugged me again and I could almost feel the smile radiating off of him.

He led me back to the waiting room where Quil and Embry had taken to playing a very intense game of rock-paper-scissors, Claire had fallen asleep, Jake watched some infomercial, looking extremely beat, and Collin and Brady were both also asleep in their respective chairs. Jared and Kim were, no doubt, with Emily, as were Leah and Seth.

Paul and I sat in a pair of the chairs, talking to each other for several hours. I nodded off for a little while a couple times - his voice just made me feel so warm and safe and comfortable - and every time I did, he would rest my head against his chest until I woke up again, far too stubborn to stay asleep for long. I found out Paul had a little sister, Kate, and he learned that I might soon be getting two new brothers. I also learned that he used to be a baseball star. Which, coincidentally, is my favorite sport. I even told him about my mom leaving me and my dad's death. He, in turn, told me that his dad had left them too.

It seemed forever until Sam came out of the hallway looking more panicked than I'd ever seen him. But I'd been prepared, because he was wearing the dress, so I took out my camera and snapped a quick picture, then hid the camera behind my back, feighning innocence. "She's fully dilated, they're rolling her down to delivery." That was all he said before he turned around and darted back through the door, bearing the semblance of a frightened animal.

Embry seemed to be thinking along the same lines - as always. I've officially decided he is my long lost twin. We have yet to decide which one of us is the evil one, but I'm thinking at this point, he's leaning more toward me. But he looked at Sam had just been standing, the door still swinging in his panicked wake. "Did any of you catch that? I don't speak freaked out Sam. Sydney?" He looked at me with an innocent grin. Go ahead, bury yourself in a deeper hole. It'll make it that much more fun to get back at you.

But I shrugged anyway. But after that, it seemed no one could focus anymore. Seth, Jared and Kim all joined us back in the waiting room, and there was always at least one person staring at the door.

It appears that Emily's got more a set of lungs on her than I ever thought, because, at one point, though it sounded a little distant, I could actually hear her yelling at Sam, and I'd never known Emily to cuss, but today, she sure as hell did. And then, the screaming stopped. Sam came through the doors, looking excited. "Nicholas Leon Uley. Seven pounds, eight ounces and healthy as a horse." I doubt the waiting room had even been as loud as it was when the pack broke out cheering. Sam smiled and went back through the doors to witness the birth of his second son. And again, Emily proved that she had some good lungs and a really extensive vocabulary.

This time, when the doors opened, and Sam came through, he looked absolutely... shocked. There was no other word to describe him. "Michael Jacob is... a girl."

Yeah, I could so see why he would be shocked.

-Forever His-

The recovery room was much nicer than the one Emily had spent her labor in. And a lot more spacious too. Which made no sense to me, quite honestly, but hey, who cares? We all gathered around Emily as she, sweaty and tired as hell, held the two little things that made it all worth it. Sam sat directly next to her, and when he got fussy took Nick in his arms and rocked him back and forth trying to calm them.

Leah stood next to Sam, leaning over him and gently stroking Nick's cheek with one of her fingers, smiling a watery smile. She sniffed deeply and stood all the way up, grabbing a tissue from Emily's bedside table and dabbing at her eyes. Yeah, like we all didn't look crappy anyway. "So, now that Michael Jacob is a girl, what are you going to name her?" she asked, obviously trying not to cry as Sam offered to let her hold little Nick. I could visibly see the stony Leah melt away as he was set in her arms.

"I don't know," Emily said. "We always planned for two boys; we didn't even discuss girl's names." She offered the little girl her finger, and I saw Emily fall in love with her little girl all over again as her tiny fingers wrapped around Emily's. I grinned. "You want to hold her, Sydney?" Em asked, looking up at me.

I was standing closest to Emily's head on the opposite side of Sam. But I was still kinda surprised. But nonetheless, I nodded, leaning down and staying very steady as Emily transferred her into my arms. Once I felt she was safe, I stood up to my full height and looked down at her. She was beautiful; absolutely gorgeous. I smiled down at her as she squirmed a bit in my arms, but didn't make a sound. "How about Michaela Jacob?" I asked, and Jake, who was at the foot of Em's bed, looked up immediately in response, a skeptical look on his and several of the other guys' faces. "I'm serious," I said with a laugh. "I don't tell many people this, but I might as well now. My middle name isn't Christina; in reality, its Christopher. I tell everyone its Christina because that's what they want to hear, but I love my real middle name." I shrugged a little bit, and continued to stare down at the wonderful baby girl in my arms.

"You know, I like it," I heard Emily say, and when I looked down, she was looking at Sam, who nodded his approval. "It'll fit her, no doubt, with all you boys and Syd and Leah running around," she said, rolling her eyes. "Michaela Jacob Uley, meet your god-mother."

It took me a minute to register what she was saying, but when I looked down at Emily, she just beamed back up at me. My mouth dropped open, trembling slightly in my surprise. "You guys mean... I-I'm?" I couldn't even finish the question, but Emily's smile just grew, even the marred side of her face turning up in her joy, both her eyes sparkling with utter happiness. She nodded up and down vigorously.

"That's right," Sam said, and I turned to look at him. "If you want to be, we'd love you to be her god-mother, Sydney." He was smiling like a fool too.

I smiled, and for the second time tonight, tears rolled down my face. I nodded, pulling a Leah, and trying to hide my tears, but I wasn't nearly so successful, and as it turned out, neither was Leah. As I looked down at her, I choked back a little sob. "Hey, little one. I'm your Aunt Sydney." I rocked her back and forth in my arms, and I saw Sam and Em smile at each other out of the corner of my eye.

"Hey, Syd?" I looked up to see Seth looking at me. He looked far too innocent. "Do you speak baby?"

I looked down at little Michaela Jacob, and smiled again. "And you know what? When you're old enough, Aunt Sydney's going to teach you how to beat up all the smart-ass boys." I grinned and Seth's eyes widened in fear. Haha. Score two, LeHaye.

I stayed in the room with Emily and Sam for a long time. Leah stayed for a long time too, but, regrettably, she had work, and had to leave. And slowly, people filtered out, going home to shower, and go to work, or maybe come back here if they had nothing holding them back. But I stayed. Eventually, Em fell asleep and Sam drove home for a quick shower himself and to pick up some new clothes for himself and a baby toy or two for his new infants; Sam in dad mode was adorable. I was left holding both of the infants, one in each arm, and I couldn't help but thinking I wanted this one day. I wanted a family, like Sam and Emily had now.

When Sam got back, he urged me to go home and get some sleep. I'd been there over twenty-four hours, and it was almost dusk again already. I'd hardly even noticed. But I agreed; I was beyond exhausted, and I was set on coming to see Em and the twins in the hospital again tomorrow, so I figured going home and getting cleaned up could only do me good.

I walked to the parking lot, and just as I was about to exit the hospital, I realized that I'd been driven here by Paul and that I now had no ride - and no cell phone to call for one. With a frustrated sigh, I stomped to the automatic glass doors, and as they opened, I was surprised to find Paul, here, cleaned up and leaning against his truck, waiting for me, apparently. He grinned when he saw me, and waved. I gave him and incredulous look and raced across the lot for the second time, but this time, when I reached my destination, I latched my arms around Paul's neck. I was actually getting pretty good at those projectile hugs. "Need a ride?" he asked me, hugging me back.

I rolled my eyes and smacked his arm lightly, walking around to the other side and jumping in. He was already in the driver's seat, starting the car. More Linkin Park blasted through the speakers, and I sighed happily. Paul shook his head at me. "Sydney LeHaye, you are one of the oddest, funniest, most awesome girls I have ever had the pleasure of knowing."

I masked the blush his words caused by looking out the window, but I don't think I did a good job because I could hear him chuckling softly to himself anyway. "Thanks, but you know, you aren't so bad yourself," I said, getting a bit more confident with each word. "You're funny, you're cool, you're ripped, you have a great sense of humor, and great taste in music, obviously." And you're drop-dead sexy. But I didn't add in that last part in. Well, at least, I didn't think I had.

"Drop-dead sexy, am I?" He laughed, and I turned red. I hated it when I said stuff like that outloud. "Well, you beat me in that category. You're beautfiul."

I didn't know how to respond to that. He sounded so sincere, unlike any other compliment I'd had from a guy. And when I looked at him and saw him looking at me, I knew it was the truth; he thought I was beautiful. I could physically feel my happiness bubbling directly beneath my skin, but it came out as heat in my cheeks. "Thank you," I repeated because it was all I could say.

He pulled up in front of my house, and, reluctantly, I got out of the car and started walking towards my front door. I heard his door shut behind him, too. So he was going to walk me to the door? Awwww. I tried not squeal as he came up next to me and grinned. The walk to my front door had never been so great. I turned to him, sad, when we did reach the front door. He stood one step down from the porch, just staring at me, those eyes piercing me in the most pleasant way possible. "Thanks for the ride." I said shyly and turned to open the door.

"Sydney." he said, and I turned around again. He walked up the final step, and stood very close to me.

He leaned down; I closed my eyes.

And he kissed me.

* * *

**A/N: 12:01 and I am finally finished! Gah! Less than a week! Are you proud of me? Cause I'm proud of me. *self-satisfied***

**No, but seriously, I, like, couldn't stop writing this chapter. I even dialed down the vulgarity! OMGz. Which, of course, stands for Oh my Godfrey! Cause, you know, Sydney's agnostic. And holy hell, I was aiming for around 5,800 words and landed with over 8,300. Yep, I was shocked too. The sucky thing is, I will probably never do any better. :(**

**Anyhow, lets get to the part where Jassy asks you a rediculous amount of questions because she's so wiped. **

**Did you like it? Did you really, really like it? Did you hate it? Did you despise it? Do you hate me? If the answer is yes, to any of the aforementioned, why? What was your favorite line? Favorite scene? Favorite color? Favorite couple? Favorite character? Favorite friendship? Favorite ice cream? Favorite sleeping place? Favorite awakening of the pack members? Are you getting annoyed at all these questions? So am I!**

**Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey, it's Jassabella. I'm really excited about this next chapter, so, you know, I'm going to make my A/N unusually short (for me) and get on with it.**

**Oh, P.S. this whole chapter is dedicated to Evanesence. Their music helped this chapter so much.**

**Songs:**

**Bodies - Drowning Pool  
Clocks - Coldplay  
Fireflies - Owl City  
Forever & Always - Taylor Swift  
Gotta Be Somebody - Nickleback  
I'll Fly With You (L'amour toujours) - Gigi d'Agostino  
My First Kiss - 3OH!3 (feat. Ke$ha)  
The Real Slim Shady - Eminem  
Say it Right - Nelly Furtado  
Sober - P!nk  
We Are the World 25 for Haiti - Artists for Haiti**

Chapter 7

The Truth About You

* * *

I was so psyched that I woke up early the next morning; my mom, dad and I were driving down to Seattle to go get the boys a couple days early. Mom had decided that she just didn't want to wait, and my dad and I had agreed. I'd be meeting them down there after I went to visit Em and the twins. I'd been so jazzed that I didn't even need my daily coffee fix, but you know, I figured it wouldn't do me any harm, so I picked up a small cup full instead of my regular two to four mugs.

I'd also decided on dressing nice today because, as well as the parents, any potential siblings to a foster child had to be interviewed as well; it was all part of the procedure. So, instead of my usual torn up jeans, tank and hoodie combo, I dressed in a nice blue button up, my nice leather black jacket and a pair of dark wash jeans that were the kind you could wear anywhere, and it would still be socially acceptable. As for shoes, I decided to stay away from the death traps that were related at all to the stilettos my mom was wearing today, and went with a nice, cute pair of black pumps that I would be much more steady in.

I was in such a good mood, I even did my hair and make-up. I pulled half my hair back in a clip, and let the rest stream down my back in its usual waterfall of raven locks. I didn't spend too much time on the make-up; just lined my eyes, glossed my lips and put on a little blush so I wouldn't look quite so... dead. And I had to say, the end result made me feel even better.

Today was going to be awesome!

I walked out of the front door, humming and locking the door behind me. My parents were already gone, having taken the Audi. I twirled my own set of keys around my finger, walking round back to our garage. I mostly got rides because of the terrain up here, but I did have my own car; a little dark blue Toyota Corolla. My mom had promised that if I got all A's on my next two report cards and helped dad fix up little odds and ends around the house, she'd get me a truck. That was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

I slid into the car easily, jamming my key into the ignition and clicking my seat belt into place in a fluid motion and backing out of the drive. I should make Paul let me drive every once and a while. But I slammed on my breaks as my review mirror glinted brightly and portrayed a shadow. The sudden stop made me fly forward a little bit, but when I righted myself and flipped my bangs out of my eyes, there was nothing. I turned around to look behind me, and seeing nothing, slowly started backing out of the drive again. The street was empty too, and I crawled by the tree-line that fed directly out of my back-yard, but seeing nothing, I sped it up and started my way to the hospital.

I didn't have anymore weird happenings on the way to the hospital, so I picked up the pace and made another record time round to the hospital. The receptionist grinned at me as I walked through the door, and I laughed. She and I had actually run for a coffee break together yesterday because, apparently, I looked like I was just about to die on my feet.

When I opened the door, Em was missing and Sam was passed out in the chair next to the door. I smiled and immediately headed towards the two little beds that were placed side by side next to Em's bed. I grinned and opened my bag, rummaging around until I found what I was looking for. I could already tell that these twins were going to be like night and day; Michaela was up and whimpering while Nick was fast asleep. I smiled and laid out a blanket on each of them, both monogrammed with their initials. Nick's was blue while Michaela's was green. "You know," I said, picking her up as she was already awake, "it's a good thing I convinced mommy and daddy to keep you initials the same, or Aunt Sydney's gift would have become useless." I smiled as her eyes slowly shut and a dreamy look took over her features, and gently set her down, just as Em walked out of the bathroom, looking far to good for any woman who had given birth to twins less than forty-eight hours ago. "Hey, Em, how are you?"

She gave me a knowing smile as she slid into bed again. "I'm good; still tired, but then, I guess Sam's even worse off than I am. He hasn't slept once in the forty-eight hours I've been admitted and I did nothing but sleep after the delivery." I turned to reevaluate Sam, sitting in the chair. He really had dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a week.

"Ha, well you did your part in the delivery room," I joked, turning to face her with a playful grin on my face, and looked back at the sleeping Sam, "and now its his turn to worry about you and the babies and be... a daddy." I smiled fondly at Sam; he would make a great dad. These two little ones didn't know how good they had it with him.

She smiled at her sleeping husband warmly, and suddenly, I felt I was intruding on a personal moment. That one little look she gave him... it radiated more love than I'd seen in a long time. So I picked up my bag and bowed out, heading towards the door. "Sydney," Em's voice stopped me right in my tracks, and I turned to look at her. She was about to say something, but then stopped and closed her mouth. She seemed to be thinking something over. "Thank you."

I turned all the way around to face her, leaning on the door frame. "What for?" I asked curiously.

She gave me a knowing smile but just said, "Everything."

* * *

I spotted Syd leaving the hospital, and stopped to watch her; Paul was so lucky. Sydney was one of the greatest girls I've ever met. She was so funny, smart, gorgeous and... just great, over all. Why was he the one who got to have her all to himself? I would be lucky to imprint on someone of half Sydney's personality and beauty. But man, I wish it had been me. If it weren't for this werewolf gene, Paul never would have noticed Sydney. I would have, though.

_Seth, there's no use in thinking like that. _Oh great. My sister's in my head. Just wonderful, because I really wanted her knowing how I felt about another pack member's imprint. _Not_. _Eh, he's in another pack, first of all, and second off, it's not like you're doing a great job of hiding it. _Her biting tone wasn't really making this any better. _Get over it._

_Shove off, Leah._

If it was even possible to laugh inside your head - and someone else's mind, for that matter - my sister succeeded. _I would love to, baby bro, but Jake put me on watch. Alpha's orders get obeyed, whether we want them to or not, remember? _Okay, now she was just mocking me. _You're damn right I'm mocking you, because your acting like a love struck puppy over a girl you know isn't destined to be with you, but with one of your closest friends. Sydney's great and all, I'll be the first to admit it, but she's not someone you should be worshipping._

_I don't worship her, _I bit back at her, and I could almost imagine my sister's skeptical look; the disbelief was tangible. _I don't. _She didn't respond, but, for some reason, I took the silence as an attack. _You know what, Leah, get out of my head, and stay the hell out of my personal life. You might be my big sister, but I don't need to be told what to do. I'm seventeen years old and I can think for myself. I'm not worshipping anybody. _I fixed a glare on a knotted tree root that was sticking out of the ground. Somewhere in my mind, Leah's surroundings were clear, as was her presence. She had stopped.

There was a short pause. That was unlike Leah. Usually she had a comeback rearing and ready to go. _Oh, I do. _Why did I expect any different? Beats the hell out of me. _But I have one question before I start. _She must have been waiting for some sort of go ahead signal from me, cause she paused again, but when I didn't respond, she continued on. _You know that Paul might literally try and kill you if he finds about this; is she really worth that to you?_

I didn't even have to think about it. _Yes._

Leah was gone. Just... gone. She'd shifted back without so much as a nasty thought to me. I was alone and in my own mind, and suddenly, that thought seemed daunting. I don't know why; that's what I'd wanted, anyway. But the utter silence that was only disrupted by my own thoughts was empty and cold.

The sickening scent of leech filled my nose, and I immediately whipped around toward the scent. The sinking feeling set in fast when I realized the cause of the scent was Sydney's car, passing me by. The whole car wreaked of leech. I bared and gnashed my teeth together. A damn leech had gotten close enough to her to touch her car. And that scent... it was the same fucking bloodsucker that we had chased half-way to Michigan last week. It was back.

I don't think I've ever run so fast. My paws beat against the forest ground and I dodged anything in my path, animals and trees alike. I ripped through the forest, not even pausing when I reached the road. I sped across the greyed pavement, and heard the squealing of tires and faint cussing, but I couldn't bring myself to stop for anything. I disappeared into the tree-line across the road, and ran. I stepped on a piece of glass, and with every step, wedged it in deeper, preventing my foot from healing, but I couldn't pay the throbbing pain in my foot any mind; only one thing mattered right now. I finally reached my destination - a street with houses lined all down it. I headed for the back yard of the one closest to the opening in the forest I had just came through, and jumped the fence, skidding on the mud-ridden ground a little bit.

I swiftly shifted back, pulling on my shorts as I ran, heading up the porch steps. I nearly tore the door off the hinges as I roughly ripped it open, letting myself in through the nice kitchen. I didn't slow down much. I made my way through it and around the corner to the living room where Paul was laying on the couch. "Hey, Seth," he greeted, but then seeing my expression, he stood up. "Hey, man, what's up?" he asked, his face creased with worry.

"It's Sydney."

* * *

I pulled into the Seattle Orphanage lot a little over an hour later. So, I was a little twenty miles over the speed limit - I was careful. I grabbed my bag and shoved it under my seat, not wanting to get robbed while I was inside. They were going to interview my parents first, giving me some time with the boys. One of the social workers was waiting for me at the door, holding it open. I smiled as I walked past her. She was a tall woman with mocha colored skin, raven black hair with olive green eyes. She was really gorgeous. "Sydney LeHaye?" she checked.

"That would be me." I confirmed, and she smiled, telling me to follow her. I did, and she led me through a long hallway to an elevator. As I passed rooms, I saw that they were four to a room, and that these kids were really cared for. She was currently leading me through the first floor girls' wing, and it was full of girls, ages three to eight. Our twins were in the opposite wing, on the second floor, being fourteen. The building had a classy feel, and a bit of a weird design. At the end of both hallways, they branched inward to a center room; a commons area where anyone was welcome, even if they were from a different floor. And then, branching from the commons area were a couple rooms that were used for interviewing potential parents. A weird design, but one that worked very well.

We reached the second floor where I saw that my parents were in a room with the boys, probably waiting for me to get there so they could start. They were sitting side by side, my dad's arm around my mom and his other hand on top of hers. That was the exact position they had been when they'd had their last meeting with me. It was a look of hope and love.

The woman and I headed toward the door, and she knocked before walking in. "Alright, now that everyone's here, let's begin. I am Cecilia Larson, and I will be handling the interviews, as well as the paper work. We're going to start off by interviewing Mr. and Mrs. LeHaye, then Sydney, and then the boys." My parents stood and walked out of the room, mom still glancing back at the boys. Cecilia smiled at the three of us. "Boys, would you like to spend some time with Sydney?"

Both of them nodded with smiles. The last time I'd been here, we'd hung out in their common room, and they'd both beaten me at Guitar Hero. What they didn't know was that, upon hearing this, my mom had immediately gone out and bought both a Wii and a PlayStation 3 and several games, including Guitar Hero, for both, and I'd been practicing since. My mom went way extravagant when it came to adoption. It wasn't like they couldn't afford it. When I was being adopted, she'd heard I liked to draw and act. She'd gone and made me a little art studio out of their spare room, as well as adding a stage. Yes, a stage. My dad was a very successful construction worker, and had built it himself on her command.

As soon as Cecilia had left, they both went to a nearby closet, pulling open the door to reveal a TV and a PlayStation 2. "Ready to get your butt whipped again, Sydney?" Raf asked with a smile, and I scoffed.

"Bring it," I challenged and sat between the two of them. The screen display while the game loaded up told me we would be playing a game called SSX Tricky. I'd never heard of it before, but I was determined to win. After two and a half rounds, I discovered that while I was no good at the racing part of this game, I was actually kicking ass at the show-off portion, which was how many trick points you could accumulate by completing tricks successfully. "Prepare to eat my dust." I said, racing past both of them with my boost maxed out, which also came from completing the tricks. I grinned as I crossed the finish line first, causing both boys to look at me in astonishment.

"You cheated," Leo accused.

"There's no way you beat both of us fairly after only two rounds," Raf agreed.

He and Leo must have been doing that twin finishing-each-other's sentences thing, because Leo continued, "And when we started, you sucked."

I shrugged at the two of them, putting on an innocent enough smile. "I beat you guys fair and square, and I suggest getting used to it, cause you boys are in my house now." I grinned at both of them. They leaned around me to look at one another, and I suddenly felt very smug. But believe me when I say the feeling didn't last very long, because the way those two were looking at me... it wasn't comforting, that was for certain. I glanced back and forth between the two of them nervously.

"Get her!"

Before I knew it, both of them had jumped on me, and I was on the floor, being tickled to death. At first, I just struggled to keep from laughing so that, hopefully, they would stop without finding out I really was ticklish. But that soon proved ineffective as I burst into giggles and squirmed under their fingers. My future brothers already know I am ticklish. I'm screwed. And they're taller than me, so I had little hope getting away. "Stop!" I squealed loudly, but both of them just kept tickling away, laughing themselves. I swatted at their hands, but to no avail; it seemed I was stuck.

I don't know how I managed it, but I somehow flipped onto my feet, and was now holding Leo hostage and using him as a meat shield against Raf. We were actually all getting a really good laugh out of it all. "Just do it, brother. Vanquish the evil demoness," Leo declared dramatically, holding his head up high. "It will be an honor to sacrifice myself for this purpose."

I was laughing so hard that I had to let go of him because I could feel myself starting to slump to the floor, and my arm, being around his neck, would have choked him for sure. I landed on my knees, my laughter wracking my body, releasing tension I didn't even know had been bunching up within me. I was unable to stand, and when I tried, I wavered, grabbing a nearby chair to steady myself. The boys laughed at me. "No guys, I'm fine. Thanks for the concern." I said, sarcasm lacing my words beautifully.

"You know we love you, Syd," Raf laughed, and I was momentarily stunned. That, in fact, was not something that I had known before now. I stood, my laughter now forgotten. Raf gave me a weary, withering look. "What are you doing, Sydney?" he asked me cautiously.

Before either of them could react, I flew at both of them, wrapping my arms around both of their necks in a hug, squeezing them tightly. The cold, impersonal oak paneled room suddenly seemed very full of love. They both gave sounds of indignation and tried to free themselves from my grasp, but this just made me hug even tighter. I then proceeded to lay very sloppy kisses on both their cheeks, and they emitted sounds of total disgust. "Awwww, you two are going to make the best little brothers ever!" I squealed, and they finally gave in, hugging me back. I could feel myself beaming as bright as a lighthouse. I was surprised my face didn't crack or get stuck that way.

Just then, the social worked walked into the room, my parents in tow. I smiled at them, and they both looked extremely happy themselves. "Sydney, will you come with me, please?" she asked. I nodded, and laid another kiss on each of their cheeks before letting go and following her out of the room. She smiled at me when we entered the room next door. The blinds were up, and it showed a very wide window into the next room. I hadn't seen it when I was in there with the boys; must have been a one-way.

I walked up to it and saw my dad playing the boys on the game, and my mom sitting in a chair close by, looking at peace, just watching them. They looked like a really happy family. "I saw how you were interacting with them," Cecilia said and I could hear the smile in her voice. "I almost feel that interviewing you would be a waste of time. But, it is procedure." I nodded, knowing very well what the procedure was. "How do you feel about these boys?"

"I already love them as if they were my own brothers," I said, deciding the truth would be the best way to go.

"And how would you say Missy and Jed have done as your adopted parents?" she asked, scribbling something down on her clipboard. "They treat you well?"

I turned to look at her, and she sensed my eyes on her, because she looked up. "I'm not adopted," I said, as answer to her question. She gaped, and flipped through some of the papers, trying to find a piece of paper that would prove me wrong. I put a hand up, and she stopped. "What I meant is, they don't make me feel like I was adopted. They make me feel like I've been with them all along, and anything about my past... well, it's like they're asking me about a trip to summer camp instead of a whole section of my life that they weren't part of. They are my parents, not my adopted parents."

She grinned at me broadly, and straightened all the papers on the clip-board. "I think we're done in here." she said, and opened the door for me. I was kinda shocked, but followed anyway. We went back into the other room, causing everyone to look at us, and dad to crash in the middle of a trick. "Raf, Leo, I think I can make this brief; do you want to go home with these people?"

The boys looked at each other, grins splitting their faces and lighting them up like firecrackers. "YES!" they both exclaimed with so much enthusiasm, I was momentarily stunned. And the look on my mom's face... she looked so happy, like everything in her life was finally complete. She was a mother to three now, and I think there was only one thing that could have made her any happier, and that would be if they were already legally hers. Dad looked pretty damn happy too, and as he snuck an arm around her waist, I could tell this is what they wanted.

I could feel myself grinning like a mad man, but couldn't bring myself to care. This was... the best feeling ever. Well, not the best, because Paul's chest was pretty sensational, but it was right up there. My parents hugged both the boys, and then the boys turned to me, looking mischievous. They both walked toward me casually, but I could see the glint in their eyes - they were planning something. Then, all at once, I was caught in a double bear hug, with a set of lips on each of my cheeks. I squealed in surprise, and tried to push them off, but was unsuccessful, and succumbed to their wills. "I love you guys too."

-Forever His-

After we had gotten all the paperwork filled out and all that jazz - ahem, dad cheating his way to first place - we packed the boys up and took them out to eat. It was a nice Italian restaurant, and our first dinner as a family was one of the most fun meals I'd ever had. Excluding, of course, the meal after dad had first been put on pain-killers for a slipped disk. Yeah, that had been great, but somehow, this was even better.

But there was this nagging feeling of... something. There was a tension in my spine that I hadn't felt in a really long time. I'd felt it for the first time after I'd woken up after my accident, and then I'd felt it when I'd heard the news that my ex was moving for college at the same time I was moving for Washington. This feeling... brought danger. Or warned of it.

Either way, I didn't want my family anywhere near me.

This was because the feeling was an almost pulsing tense of my spine, which meant that this was directly related to me. The less severe the pulling of muscles, the less severe the problem that came my way, and it was always the worst when I was the one getting hurt. Some people get feelings like that, but because I didn't feel it until after my accident, I theorized that it had something to do with my new found ability. Like when animals know when a storm's coming, I know when something bad is going to happen.

So, what could I do? I lied. I told my mom that I was going to a nearby boutique to look at some dresses for the up coming Fall Ball, which was completely believable. While I didn't adore shopping like my mom, - or Claire and Kim, for that matter - I didn't despise it like Leah did.

And I did go to a boutique to look at dresses. Because I really did need one for the Fall Ball. But I spent much more time in there than was necessary. In fact, it was nearly nightfall by the time I was done wasting time in there. It had been a good while - almost two hours - and I decided it would be okay for me to get on the road now. On my way to the car, which I'd parked about a block over, I couldn't shake the feeling of being followed and watched.

The moment my car was in sight, I picked up my speed and ran to it, unlocking it and opening the door in a hurried fashion, throwing myself into the car and jamming the locks shut behind me. I sat there for a moment, gathering my emotions. Where had that come from? It had happened so suddenly. I'd gotten the feeling that I should be running away - running away from whatever was causing the nagging feeling in spine. I was sweating, though the night was actually pretty cool, and had a nice breeze going. I wiped at my forehead and looked in my rearview mirror, my own panicked expression staring back at me. "You're fine," I told myself, starting the car. "You're safe."

A sudden tap on the window made me scream and eat my own words.

But when I looked to who'd done it, there was no monster or creature of the night. Instead, there was a police officer, medium height and on the portly side, tapping my window with the end of his torch. I tried to relax as I rolled down the window. "Is everything alright ma'am," he asked me, "you seemed often frightened just now."

I nodded, brushing everything off like it was nothing. "Oh, I'm fine. Just came from a scary movie, you know. Kinda freaked me out." I cringed for emphasis, and giggled, trying to make my little performance believable, and he seemed to buy it.

He nodded along, acting like he dealt with teenage girls frightened by movies all the time, and somehow, I didn't completely doubt that he did. "Alright, ma'am, if you're sure." He tapped the roof of my car with his hand. "Drive safely. Oh, and watch out for those vampires." He gave a throaty laugh, and walked away. I laughed a little at the joke too, taking my sweet time driving away from the city lights of Seattle.

The drive home was quiet. Eerily quite. And dark. The only light there was to see by was my headlights and the glowing fixtures on my dashboard. The only sound was the air conditioner blowing and the occasional pebble flying up and hitting the windshield. The silence was starting to wear on my nerves, so I did what any sane person would do; I switched on the radio. Of course, because I was out and about in the middle of nowhere, there were no clear radio stations coming in. Which sucked, but then, I do have a small collection of CDs for such an occasion. I didn't bother to look through them or anything - simply hit play on the player and hoped something good was in. And it didn't disappoint. The whole car filled with the sound of Evanesence, one of the best groups I've ever heard, aside from Linkin Park.

I pushed aside all thoughts of what I'd been feeling earlier, and just felt the music, singing along. I knew every word to every song on this CD, and I now made good use of this knowledge. I'm not a talented singer, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. I was very off-key, in fact, but I still sang along to every song that blasted through my system.

About half-way back to Forks, the song 'Haunted' came on, flooding the car with the dreary tune. "Long lost words whisper slowly, to me-" I cut off as me car suddenly jerked to the side, and the engine made a loud screech sound. My car halted suddenly, and my headlights died.

_Still can't find what keeps me here  
When all this time I've been so hollow  
Inside_

All the lights on my dash were still on, and my radio was still going. I couldn't fathom what the hell had just happened. I unlatched my seat belt and all but kicked my door open. Since I only had a very small knowledge base of cars and engines - thanks to hanging out with the guys, quite a few of whom were mechanics - I decided to see if I could find what the hell had caused my car to jerk, almost sending me off the road. I wrapped my jacked tighter around me as the environment seemed to get cooler by the second.

My radio still blasted as I walked along the side of the road, comforting me as I searched for anything - anything at all - that could have caused my car to almost tumble off the road, but found nothing. I looked around, and saw that the sun had completely disappeared behind the trees, yielding the sky to a glorious full moon and an eternity of stars. It was beautiful.

_I know you're still there  
Watching me  
Wanting me  
I can feel you pull me down_

I could hear the whispers of the smaller animals around me. Little meaningless murmurs, but soothing, somehow, though it did nothing for the ridgid feeling in my spine. And then, all at once, the world went silent. I'd never heard so many animals cease their chatter at once, but there wasn't even a breath among the trees, save for my own. I was walking up alongside my car when I heard a low chuckle, causing me to freeze. "Haunted," a low, sexy voice said, shattering the silence like nails on a chalkboard. My headlights flared to life, exposing a tall figure standing directly in the path of my car. A smiling mouth and crimson eyes stared at me from the darkness surrounding him. "You always did have a sense for these things."

He started walking closer to me, and with each step, I could make out more and more of his features. My headlights dimmed, making him far easier to see. He was tall, had messy black hair, pale, and was handsome. Really handsome. So why did I feel the urge to get away as fast as I could? And that smile... he looked familiar.

The smile didn't fade, even in my silence. In fact, it widened. "Oh, what's the matter, Syd?" he asked, and I flinched at the sound of my name on his tongue - tinted with such sweet venom, as it was. "You don't remember me? I supposed I can't blame you. I mean, I would forget too if I was always surrounded by guys who would throw themselves in front of a bus for me." The mocking in his voice cut through me, but I stayed silent. He stared at me with terrifying, unblinking ruby eyes. "I suppose a vow of undying love is nothing compared to that."

It all came together then. His face, his voice, his words.

"Cade."

The breathy whisper hung in the air between the two of us, keeping him at bay. He paused briefly, his grin widening further, taking on an almost cat-like quality. Far too pleased. "So you do remember me then, love?" It wasn't really a question; he wasn't expecting an answer. He leaned against my car, looking casual and yet, predatory, all at once. So unlike the Cade I had known and loved. "I must tell you, that is a relief. Grace and Jack would have been most put out to have come all the way out here for nothing." He walked toward me, raising his hand so that he could run one icy finger across my jaw-line. "I would have been heartbroken, had you forgotten me, love."

I shoved him, the palms of my hands landing against ice-cold marble, but it caught him off-guard just enough for me to make it back inside my car. The music was still blaring, and though it was ridiculous, I still found solace in the sound. I picked up my phone and attempted to dial somebody, but then threw it at the passenger side. "Kim broke you!" I reminded myself, grabbing the wheel with one hand and turning my keys with the other.

There was a slam and I heard the metal of the door next to me groan. I let out an involuntary scream as I turned to see a very manic looking Cade pressed up against the glass of my window. The crimson of his eyes had darkened to the color of dried blood. "Sydney, don't make me do anything I'm going to regret." He pressed closer, if that were possible. "I love you, Syd. Please, don't make me hurt you."

I started crying, and grabbing the sides of my head, tried to drown him out. "Leave me alone!" I screamed, the force of the sobs wracking my body. I looked over just in time to see the fury in his face just before I heard the sound of glass shattering - the window, my only barrier between him and me. And he'd broken it.

He grabbed me by the shoulders, dragging me through the window. I screamed, but he covered my mouth with one of his hands. "Don't you see?" he whispered urgently into my ear. "This way, we can be together. Forever. Just you and me." I was still crying, but my sobs were muffled by his hand. "Don't you want that?" He turned me towards him. "Sydney... I still love you." He used his other hand to wipe my tears away, and for a moment, I could feel the warmth that those hands used to carry, and I could see the old Cade - the Cade I loved. But the ice that ran through his veins now made my hair stand on end, and I couldn't bear to look at him.

A light spread across the pavement, alighting his inhuman features. My back was turned, so I could only assume a car was coming towards us on the road. He glanced at the expanse of road behind me, and then our eyes locked once more. He moved my bangs out of my eyes, and I flinched away from his touch. "There are two people coming down this road. If they stop, you are to act natural. If you scream or do anything of the sort, they will die. Do you understand?"

I stared at him, horrified, but nodded, and he was clearly satisfied by this, because he let go of my mouth and instead settled for putting one arm around my shoulder. His arm was heavy and hard, and I squirmed under it, but one hard look from him had me still as a statue. And just as Cade had known they would, the truck slowed to a stop.

An older man with long, greying hair rolled down his window. "You folks alright?"

Cade gave a light, humorous laugh that almost sounded... human. "We're having some car trouble," he said, the lie rolling sweetly from his lips, "just waiting for the tow-truck to get here, is all." If I hadn't known better, I would have believed him myself.

The other man, much younger, leaned forward so that he could see us too. "Y'all sure? I mean, we could drive you two somewhere, and come get your car in the morning." He was really cute, but I don't think Cade would have liked my saying so. I wanted to get these two away from me as fast as possible. The longer they were here, the more I endangered them. Something was really different about Cade; he was dangerous, now. And it frightened me.

"We're fine," I replied, forcing my smile to be as genuine as possible. "We'll just wait until the tow-truck gets here. I kinda have anxiety about anyone else handling my car." I shrugged and pretended to blush a little bit. I had to get them to believe my lie and leave in order to save them. This would be the best act of my life.

The older of the two men - probably the younger man's father - looked at me with uncertain eyes. I didn't let my mask crack. "Alright, if you two are sure. Have a good night." He nodded his head to us, and drove away. It seemed like an eternity before I couldn't see their tail lights glowing red in the distance, but eventually, they disappeared, and I let out a sigh of relief for them.

Cade turned to me, eyes glowing again, that crimson shining like a gemstone. "There's the Sydney I know," he said, looking over my body as he spoke. I felt violated. "So beautiful, inside and out." He pulled me closer to him, nearly crushing me to his ivory body. I whimpered, but didn't dare try and escape him again. He looked down at me, his features looking more human than I'd seen. His eyes showed genuine worry for me... and hurt. "You-you're scared of me." he said slowly. It wasn't a question, but I nodded, whimpering again as his grip tightened. All these declarations of love, and yet, I felt as if I were going to die. The hand that didn't bind me to him reached up and stroked my cheek, and for a moment, I could almost imagine that those eyes staring at me were the gorgeous shade of green again, and that I could hear his heart beating in his chest.

My make believe didn't last long.

His arm tightened further, and be brought me in front of him, rather than to his side, so that I was in more of a head-lock than anything else. On instinct, I grabbed at his arm, trying to tear it away from my neck, though I knew it was no use. He'd proven time and time again tonight that he could kill me if he wanted - break me any way he wished. "I don't want you to fear me, Sydney," he kissed my neck, right where my pulse hammered. "My love. After tonight, you will never have to fear me again. Tonight... and then forever"

_"SYDNEY!"_

Before I knew what was happening, Cade's arm had been ripped from around my neck, and I had been thrown to the pavement below. I hit my head squarely on the cement, causing a splitting pain so harsh felt as if someone were trying to split my skull with a jackhammer. I looked up - I had to see what had saved me - and thought I must have had a concussion. The sight before me was just too incredible. Fifteen feet away from me, Cade was crouched, trying to figure out a way to get to his prey, no doubt. Five feet in front of me, a giant greyish-silver wolf was poised, protecting me.

He snapped visciously at Cade, but made no move to approach him. _"Dirty bloodsucker," _the wolf growled out, the sound so feral and animalistic it was alarming, and yet, soothing all at once. This wolf - this massive wolf - was my sole protector, and I could scarcely think of a place I'd feel more safe.

Cade didn't seem to care much for the wolf in his path - his obsession was to get to me. He leaped for me, but the wolf leaped into the air in the same instant, and they met head-on. There was a terrible sound of rock tearing - metal breaking. They fought, and somehow, in the time they ripped and tore at each other, I was able to right myself on the ground, and backed up so that I slumped against the car, attempting to use it as leverage to get to my feet.

I felt something hot slide down my cheek, and at the same instant, caught a glimpse of Cade's eyes. They were no longer that chilling shade of crimson, but an absolutely terrifying onyx. I pressed my hand to where my wound poured blood.

_Vampire_

The word struck me. Cade was a vampire. Cade wanted to make me a vampire. Cade was after my blood. My Cade.

But my blood had sent Cade into a kind of frenzy. He paid no mind to the wolf in his path any longer. His only objective was to get to my blood, I realized. And that made him careless. A breeze blew by, sending my hair flying in the air like some sort of ribbon dance. I let go of my wound and reached my bloodied hand out so that the wind would surely catch its scent. I saw Cade inhale deeply, a look of pure bliss crossing his features.

And then, the loudest tearing sound I'd ever heard.

In the one second Cade had been distracted by my blood, the wolf had taken its chance, and bitten down, almost tearing his arm off. It was repulsing, seeing a limb mangled so. It hung, half torn off, the bone clearly visible, the flesh, if you could even call it that, hanging off in shredded ribbons. The wolf stood in front of me, and Cade twenty feet away. His eyes were still a dangerous black, but he made no move towards me. "I will be back for her," Cade growled at the wolf, his eyes flashing. "You can't keep her away from me forever." His grin turned feline and cocky. "She will come to me of her own will. She will seek me out. And then... forever." Before I could blink, Cade was gone.

The wolf wearily turned to me. Familiar brown eyes stared at me, nearly level with my own. I managed to push myself up so that I could stand in an almost upright position, slumping against the car, and then toddling forward to grab some of the fur around his neck. He didn't seem to mind, just stared at me still. _"You're alright," _the voice said, and I nodded.

"All thanks to you," I said, and the wolf... looked pained. More pained than Rift had when I'd met him. The look that crossed those beautiful eyes was one of pure agony. And I wanted nothing more than to relieve him of that pain. "You saved me," I murmured quietly, resting my head on his neck.

"No," the wolf said, backing away from me, forcing me to fall back against the car for support. "You're in this situation because of me." The wolf's expression turned to one of anger. "You're hurt because of me." The taste of iron that tainted my mouth told me he was right, but I refused to believe he had anything to do with it. How could he think so? It wasn't his fault that I had an obsessive vampire ex. I reached for him, but he backed away again. "No." The force of the word cut through me. He stared at me, and then turned into the brush, and ran, leaving me alone, in the middle of the road.

Not even a moment passed before the leaves of the brush the wolf had just disappeared into rustled, and parted.

A pair of brown, green flecked eyes stared at me. The most captivating eyes I'd ever seen in man or animal.

"Paul."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so it wasn't as long as the last chapter was, but it was... kinda close. Plus, it had a lot of elements that the last didn't. It had a point of view you guys have never seen before; Seth! Don't worry, you guys will definitely not hate him by the end of this story. Everybody loves Seth, and I will make sure it stays that way.**

**It also had an exerpt from a kickass song, which was made by the band that inspired this whole entire chapter, Evanesence! Love them so much. You guys got a peak at both sets of twins, which I love - like, half my best friends are twins - so don't be too shocked if one or two more twins show up somewhere.**

**Oh, and of course, a fight scene, however poorly written it was by Jassy.**

**But give me a break, it was almost 2:00 a.m. by the time I finished this baby.**

**Righti-o. Anyhow, hope you guys like it and thought it was worth the wait. I was pretty happy with it myself, but then, I'd probably be happy with anything if it meant I got to go to sleep at this point in time. But even so, I think I did a pretty good job on this chapter. Shall we get onto the author roast? Yes, I think we shall. Personally, it's one of my favorite parts of writing. Is that sadistic?**

**Did you love it? Did you hate it? Should Jassy be put in front of a firing squad for being so sucktastic. What was your favorite line? Your favorite scene? Your favorite character? What would you like to see more of? Less of? Did anyone like Sydney's new brothers? Anyone else miss Embry in this chapter? Don't worry, I'll bring him back for the next one.**

**Embry: Good. I've gotten the most positive reviews in this story.  
Me: No you haven't.  
Embry: Oh, really, then who does?  
Paul: Me.  
Me: Yep, he's got you beat, Embry.  
Embry: He doesn't count! -puppy dog pout-  
Me: Sorry, Embry. I wrote you out. Doesn't work on me.  
Embry: Dammit. Review for Embry!  
Paul: No, review for Paul!  
Me: No, please review for Jassy! -slaps boys-**

**P.S. This is my longest running story ever. I've usually gotten bored and moved on by this point. :)**

**Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Whoo! She found out! Damn, it's going to be hard to live up to these last two chapters. Each are over 8,300 words. I have my work cut out for me.**

**Songs:**

**Breathe (2 A.M.) - Anna Nalick  
Here I Am - Bryan Adams  
Gotta be Somebody - Nickleback  
I Like It - Enrique Iglesias (feat. Pitbull)  
Love the Way You Lie - Eminem (feat. Rihanna)  
Next Contestant - Nickleback  
Never Say Never - Justin Bieber (feat. Jaden Smith)****  
One of Those Girls - Avril Lavigne  
Ridin' Solo - Jason Derülo  
Runaway - Avril Lavigne  
Stays Four the Same - The Ready Set  
White Flag - Dido**

Chapter 8

An Inability to Fear

* * *

"Paul."

It sounded like a dying whisper dancing on a breeze, and yet, it was so clear. She seemed to give out after that; giving up on staying awake and upright. She fell forward, and despite my fear that she would reject me, I couldn't let her get hurt - not again. I made it over to her, and caught her just as she was about to hit the ground. She made a groaning noise, but otherwise did not stir. I righted her in my arms so that I was carrying her bridal style, and knowing that her little car was probably done for, I reached for my phone and pressed speed dial two.

"Jake here," the other line answered after a couple rings. It was oddly noisy on his end, I noticed, but I was the one who called him so it wasn't really my place to say anything about it. "What's up?" he asked, sounding as lighthearted as ever, which raised my temper a little bit.

I don't know why. It's not like he could have known. "Jake, it's Paul." The noise immediately disappeared; so it had been Quil and Embry, big shocker. "Do you think that you guys could come out here and pick up a car for me?" I didn't want to tell them, but I knew if he asked, I would have to. He was the head mechanic and the true alpha. Even though he wasn't my alpha, I would still be compelled to tell him.

"Yeah, sure, Paul," Jake answered instantly - maybe he picked up on the slight urgency in my voice - and I felt myself breathe a sigh of relief. I was going to hold onto the small hope that she wouldn't remember this ordeal, and that I would be able to tell her about all this later, once I was more sure of our relationship - once I was sure we had a relationship. And that plan would not work if he car was totalled. "Just tell me where 'here' is, and why you sound like Sydney just drove off the side of a cliff."

He meant it as a joke, but in the current situation, I wouldn't have found much laughable. Much less that. I repressed a growl and reminded myself he didn't know what was going on. "I'll tell you when you guys get here," I ground out, and then told him what road we were on and approximately where we were located on the long expanse. "Bring my truck, too." I added before ending the call. I righted Sydney in my arms, and decided just standing there with her in my arms was useless. Might as well make us both more comfortable and sit down. And that's what I did. I sat on the hard, cold pavement and settled her in on my lap so that her cheek rested against my warm chest. She felt really cold, but then, she always did to me.

Her head was bleeding, and though that wasn't ideal, it might have just saved her life. That boy... he'd been a newborn. If she hadn't started bleeding, and thrown all his caution to the wind, he might have been able to get around me, or even through me, using pure strength. If he came back, though, I'd be ready for him. There's no way I would let him hurt her, not ever.

The night only seemed to get darker from there. There was no lights, what so ever, and no one was on the roads this late at night, except truckers, and they don't come through on this road; far too many accidents happen here. Lots of deer in the area. A semi crashing would cause a nice forest fire.

A light fell on her face, causing her to wince, and on instinct, I shielded her eyes. I didn't even have to look back to know that it was Jake's rabbit and my truck approaching. The doors opened and shut quickly - nearly simultaneous. "Holy shit, what the hell happened?" That was Embry. I could almost imagine myself in his eyes; half-crazed looking as I stared at her.

I felt like crying as I stared at her, and I did feel crazy. There was quite a bit of skin missing on the side of her forehead where she'd banged it against the concrete. It had turned black as the blood had dried, and her hair was matted with it. Her jacket had managed to make it through all of this - not even a spot of blood on it, despite the stream that ran down her face. The only reason I even noticed this fact was because she had once told me that it was her favorite article of clothing. And I remembered how pissed Leah had been when she'd accidentally shredded her favorite hoody. She'd rephased, actually. And rare is it when Leah loses control that much.

I didn't want to jostle her when I stood up, so I said, "Embry, help me get her to the car."

* * *

I don't think I've ever seen Paul look so out of his mind. The way he clutched Sydney's unconscious form to him - it was like he was trying to will the life back into her. He said my name, causing me to look at him, and not the broken little form of one of my best friends. I kept thinking, 'There's no way she's gone; she wouldn't leave without getting me back.' The wild look in Paul's eyes told me that this was beyond Syd just being hurt.

The sickly scent in the air sent a cold douse of reality down my spine. This wasn't an accident - Sydney had been attacked by a leech.

Jake and Quil must have been thinking the same thing I was, because both their faces were contorted in disgust and rage. The both regarded Sydney as the newest member to their pack. She was special to all of us now. She'd grown on each and every one of us, and now we were all hooked on the person that was Sydney LeHaye. Even if she was a little frightening.

And then his words hit me. He wanted me to help him get her to the car. He was going to try and drive the both of them the rest of the car ride back. And as he was at the moment, he wouldn't even make it half-way back.

But there's no way to argue with a man who's worried for his imprint. I didn't know if he could even stand up with her anymore, and he seemed to have enough sense to know this too, as he let me pick her up in my own arms. He shakily got up and followed me to the truck, and watched every move I made as I ever so gently set Sydney down in the back seat of the truck, and then carefully strapped her in so that she would roll off of the little make-shift bunk. I then gently shut the door, so as not to stir her.

Paul was still there, looking right over my shoulder. "Thank you, Embry," was all he said as he stared at her through the window. He then turned to me, just as I was opening the door. His eyes still projected a crazed, caged animal's. "What are you doing, man?" he asked, sounding wounded.

I looked him directly in the eyes, and deliberately said, "I'm driving you guys home."

He shook his head and made a grabbed at the keys, but seeing it coming, I quickly jerked my hand back, out of his reach. I was lucky to be the third tallest pack member, as far as I was concerned. "C'mon, man," Paul said, stepping forward and grabbing at the car keys again, but again I jerked my arm back out of his reach and took a step back. I saw the anger spark in his eyes, and I prayed that he wouldn't pick now to pull a stupid stunt. "You're being stupid. Every minute I waste getting my keys is a minute she's not getting any better." He made yet another grab for the keys, but I ducked out of his reach. He growled lowly, and stalked toward me. "Embry!"

I saw the fist before I think even he knew he'd raised it against me, and side-stepped it, grabbing it in mid-air, and twisting his arm to the side. His nostrils flared, and for a moment, I could almost swear that his eyes flashed red. He jerked his arm out of my hand, and tried to hit me again, but I wasn't going to take this shit anymore. He was right. Every second he spent fighting me was a moment Sydney wasn't getting any better. I wasn't going to let my little sister suffer. Not ever.

His fist came at me again, and I knew it was a conscious effort this time; the strike was far too precise not to be. But I had martial arts training - Paul didn't. I deflected the fist with my forearm, but didn't want to waste time actually fighting Paul off, so in the second it took his to register that his fist hadn't connected, I took my window of opportunity.

Both my hands landed solidly on his chest, and I pushed him back against the truck, pressing one of my arms on his throat so that he wouldn't try to fight his way out. He lifted his head away from where my arm was pressed, and I could feel the growl reverberating in his throat, but he made no move to fight me, though his eyes were trained on me with deadly intent reflected. "I'm being stupid? Paul, do you even realize what the fuck you're doing?" I yelled in his face, hoping to grab his attention. It seemed to. "You're fighting me to drive her home, when you're so half out of your mind that you wouldn't make it off this road without crashing! You're the one who's _killing her!_" I felt like punching him to get this through his damnably thick skull, but knew that would do nothing but make this catastrophic situation worse.

But it appeared my fist was unneeded, because I saw it dawn on him. That I was right. That by doing this he was only making everything worse. And I have never seen Paul Walker cry, in all my life, but in that moment, he looked in through the windshield, and I'm sure what he saw was a broken Sydney, pale and soaked in her own blood, but a single tear fell from his eye as he stared at her.

I let go of him, and he got up, letting me see the dent that the collision had put in his car, he saw it too, and instead of the anger I was expecting - Paul loved this thing, after all - I saw more humor than anything, and I had to fight the urge to let my jaw drop. I think I did a pretty convincing job.

He walked around the front of the truck, and pulled the door open, and I did the same, and we started the long drive back to La Push.

-Forever His-

We were almost to Forks when I realized something - we couldn't taken Sydney to the hospital. It would take forever to fabricate a story that was plausible enough that Paul and I wouldn't have to get checked out as well. We had to call the one person who could treat her without asking questions; Doctor Carlisle Cullen, the least hated of the Cullens aside from Bella and Nessie. Last I heard, Doctor Fang-Bang was living somewhere Canada, but the only other people who would have a chance at treating her were vets, and Sydney was not part dog, unlike the rest of us, so I'm pretty sure he was are only chance. Luckily, I knew just how to reach Bella.

I pulled out my phone, which currently had a sticker of a monkey on it, thanks to the shorty who was unconscious in the back seat. She's going to be a joy to drink with. And for some reason, she always has a pack of stickers on her. I didn't think it wise to ask. But I pressed the 'b' key on the key board of my phone - Brady had been really pissed when he learned that he was speed dial 'F' for... well, a lot of things, including, FooFoo, which is what Sydney called him the last time he had annoyed her and a child had been around - and held it up to my ear.

It rang two or thre times before someone picked up the line. _"Hello?" _The other voice answered, and I was almost sure that the last time I'd talked to Bella - vamped out or not - she hadn't sounded that manly.

"Umm," I stalled, not quite sure what to say. I hadn't bothered to learn any of their damn names, and I wasn't sure if this was Edward, Carlisle, the big one or the blond. It certainly wasn't any of the women. I didn't want to faux pas on one of the men's names, and I'd never been the nicest person to the leeches... "Bella?" I tried, sounding smug, even to myself.

"Yes, it's Bella," the other line said sarcastically. "I recently had a sex change. It went quite smashingly, if I do say so myself. Just goes to show that if you pay enough, a doctor can always be bought." Well that was slightly scarring. "No, actually, this is Emmett, Bella's big brother. Now who the hell is this?"

Emmett... I still wasn't sure which one it was. And they haven't lived here for over a year and a half, so I guess it didn't matter if he knew who I was. "You're worst nightmare," I said seriously, and I heard him scoff. "I'm one of Bella's friends." Okay, so friends might have been stretching it a bit. She wasn't exactly a friend anymore. But I don't think he'd let me talk to anyone else if I pointed that fact out. "We're in a bit of a bind, and one of the Imprints was injured. I was wondering if there was anyway Dr. Cullen could come check up on her."

I could feel Paul's incredulous stare on me, but I ignored it, knowing he was really just worried about putting her in a room with one of them after what she'd just gone through. The other line went quiet for a moment. "A wolf, eh?" It was rhetorical, and since I was asking a favor, I decided to bite my tongue on the Canadian joke that was threatening to break through my lips, which I had clamped together. "I guess she's not your imprint; you wouldn't be so calm about all this if she was." Well look who's so smart. But I really wasn't expecting what was said next. "We'll be there. Take her to our old house." And then the line went dead.

I slid my phone back into my pocket, and took a quick glance at Paul. He seemed as calm as could be expected of him at this particular point in time. His Imprint was unconscious in the back seat, and I'd just invited the same thing that had done this to her to come look at her. "Sorry, man, but it's the only way." His jaw stiffened, but he nodded, mostly to show that he'd heard me - I knew he didn't understand. "Remember last year when Quil took Claire in with the stomach flu, and the doctor brushed up against him? We came so close to being discovered. They had Quil hospitalized for days before we came up with some BS story about his mom wanting the Tribal Elder to be the one to look after her son in his sickness." I risked a look back at Sydney in the rear view mirror, but I could only see part of her torso, covered in her hair, and one hand, half closed, like she was clutching something. "We can't risk that again."

I saw him look at the rearview mirror that was placed on the passenger door, and in his eyes, I knew he could see her face, and what she must look like. "Yeah, I know," he said, shifting in his seat so that he wasn't tempted to look at her. "I just wish I wasn't the reason she was going though this."

"At least you were there to protect her."

He stayed silent, but I caught him sneak yet another glance at Sydney. I couldn't say I knew how he felt. I had no idea. But he pressed the dial on the stereo, and after a seconds delay, Linkin Parks 'Leave Out All the Rest' filtered through the near silence of the truck. "She loves them," he said, his muscles in his face relaxing ever so slightly. "At least I can put on one of her favorite songs for her." I knew just as well as he did that this was one of her favorite songs of all time, and she would have felt better just hearing it.

Soon, we drove past the Forks town limits, and the quaint safe feeling that always seemed to surround this little town took me off my edge ever so slightly. Even after all that had happened just outside it's limits, it still held a warm quality, like La Push. But the small light the town provided faded as we drove farther and farther, passing pitch black streets, with the occasional window breaking the darkness harshly with their artificial light. We even drove past Bella's old street, where a dim light filtered through the window of Charlie's house. Sue had decided to move in with him, and give the house to Leah and Seth, until Seth decided to move out. But we passed up that street too, and soon, it was all really darkness. If it weren't for my wolf senses, I probably would have crashed into a tree. Well, them and the headlights.

I just barely remembered where to turn in for the Cullen's mansion-like estate. And soon, the Victorian styled white building came into view from behind the veil of foliage. It certainly didn't look like it hadn't been tended to in over a year. It still looked immaculate, in fact. And I saw that the front hall was lit lowly. They must already be here, and the smell that surrounded the house confirmed my suspicions.

I hadn't even stopped when Paul unbuckled his seat belt, and wrenched the door open. I barely registered him unbuckling Sydney in the back, though he did so a lot slower and far more gentle than he'd done for himself. I unlatched my own seat belt and walked around to his side, where he was just scooping Sydney into his arms. She almost looked like she was asleep.

Of course, the seeming innocence of her current state was marred by the drying blood that still streamed down the side of her face, drying on her skin, her clothes and matting her hair in its malignant nature. And as I looked on at her in Paul's arms, I saw her move for the first time of her own accord tonight. Under lids that were tinted purple, her eyes danced, and she moved her head so that it fell against Paul's chest instead of his arm. I saw a ghost of a smile appear on the man's features, but even her apparent need for him, even in her unconscious state, was not enough to put him at ease enough to let himself smile. Not until she was okay.

We started toward the house, and before we even made it to the door, it was opened. Nessie, in her golden glory, stood there, looking on with worry. I don't really think Nessie knew either of us, but she hurried us on into the house, closing the door behind us. She then led us into the main room, where the table was set up with some medical tools and lights. Carlisle stood in the middle of the room, and Bella and the big one - Emmett, I'm assuming - stood off to the side. Both of them stiffened as Paul brought Sydney into the room.

"Put her on the table."

* * *

_"Syd!"_

_I was reading when a familiar voice startled me. More like scared the shit out of me, but I wouldn't ever admit that. I turned around to see a breathless Cade running at me from down the hall. I smiled, and waved at him. People moved in fear of being ran over by my frantic boyfriend. I laughed as he skidded to a stop in front of me, looking deliriously happy. His green eyes sparkled, and he gasped shortly in his excitement. "You didn't blow up a toilet, again, did you?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him._

_He shook his head and took in another gulp of breath. "No," he rasped, but he didn't seem to mind the lack of oxygen too much. "It's much better than that. But first," he grabbed my hand, and placed it against his chest. I felt his heart beating fast underneath the surface, and I grinned at him. He grinned brightly back, and said, "The run here didn't cause this. Only you do."_

_**This is Wrong.**_

_I blushed and looked away from those sparkling green pools. "Well," I started shyly, "why don't you tell me why you felt the need to run all the way here."_

_He just smiled and grabbed my hand, sprinting down the hall. I squealed as he tugged me along. He was being a lot more impulsive than he'd been before. He stopped, and yanked the door to an empty classroom open, pulling me inside, and shutting the door behind us. He turned to me, and pulled me into a kiss, full of excitement and promise for a future. He pulled back, and stared at me, putting one hand on my cheek sweetly. "I got accepted. To Yale. Your dream school." He rested his forehead against mine. "And after next year, you'll join me. But until then, I can come visit on holidays, and we still have the whole summer." His hand intertwined with mine. "We'll make it."_

_Tears pricked my eyes. I squeezed his hand, and then released my hand from his grasp, moving away from him. I looked up at him, just as the first of my tears streamed down my face. He made to step toward me, but I only stepped back again. He looked hurt by my actions, but didn't make another attempt for me. I wrapped my arms across my chest. "I'm moving, Cade."_

_He looked stricken. "No you're not."_

_**This isn't him.**_

_I nodded. "But I am." I took a deep shuddering breath. "At the end of the summer, my parents and I are going to pack up and move to a reservation in Washington." More tears ran their course. "I didn't want to tell you because I thought it would ruin our summer together."_

_He still didn't make a move for me. He just stood there, looking like I'd just smacked him. I couldn't believe how sad he looked. Finally, he looked away from me, at the floor. "I'll come visit you there." His voice was gruff, the way it was when he was trying not to show how he was really feeling. It was a slight difference. Near imperceptible. But I knew my Cade better than I knew myself, sometimes. I knew he didn't want me to see just how much pain this news was causing him. He knew I saw it anyway._

_I shook my head. "No you won't."_

_He looked at me sharply, his eyes alight with sparking anger. "You think I won't?" he asked me. He'd always had a slight temper, but never had he whipped his forked tongue at me before. I outwardly winced, and I instantly saw his features soften. He opened his arms, and this time, I walked into them, and he closed them around me, engulfing me in his inate sense of 'safe.' "I'm sorry, love." He spoke lovingly into my ear. "It's just... it's a lot to take in... You really think I won't?" I leaned forward into his chest, inhaling the scent that always present when he was. A mix of body wash, laundry detergent and something just male. It was one of the most comforting smells in the world to me. It had been since I'd met him._

_"I know you would," I started, "if I would let you." He pulled away from me, keeping me at arms length, his green eyes searching my blue ones. He wanted to know what I was thinking, as he always did, but now, I think he needed to know. I sighed, but made myself look into his eyes. "Cade, I know you better than anyone else does, and I know that coming to see me in Washington would just cause problems for you. With yours parents; with school. I won't let you do that."_

_He seemed to understand, because he brought me forward again, burying his face in the crook of my neck and nodding. "You're right," he conceded. His arms tightened around me. "I'm going to miss you so much."_

_I made a fist around the part of his jacket that I was holding onto. I didn't want to start crying again. "Me too." I managed, fresh tears stinging the edges of my eyes, but I blinked them back, and attempted to get my bearings straightened, but my emotions didn't seem to be interested in being reigned over today._

_"I love you, Sydney. And We'll see each other again," he whispered, "I know it."_

_**Not anymore.**_

All I could see was black. Pitch black. I felt nothing beneath me, nor above me. It seemed I was alone in this nothingness. My lungs burned for the air that seemed to be absent from the space. And when I tried to move, I felt bound; chained to my own, useless body. I closed my eyes, the endless black more bearable inside my own lids. It seemed I was chained there forever, inside myself, no air. I couldn't imagine how I was still alive, except for that maybe I wasn't, and this was eternal punishment for something I'd done.

The temptation to open my eyes again eventually won out, and I did. The pitch black was gone, to be replaced with blinding white. But I could breathe again, which was a relief. I could also move, slightly. I was still bound by something, and when I looked, I saw a straight jacked bound my arms. I squirmed uncomfortably in the material, but it had no give. They were designed to do just that, I thought, keep people in place. But those were crazy people who were in danger of hurting themselves. I wasn't in danger of hurting myself. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. But then... it was there.

Something inside me snapped, and all I could think about was getting out of my bondage and... pain. Pain was the most appealing thing to me in the world right now. Something in the back of my mind wondered vaguely what was wrong with me, but I didn't question it. The rest of me didn't want to. It wanted to hurt.

I struggled to get to my knees, and then to my feet. They hadn't even allowed me shoes. Whoever they might be. But once on my feet, I ran, building as much momentum up as I could, and slamming myself into the wall. It didn't hurt. Not even a little bit. My body raged in it's desire for pain, but I gathered my thoughts a little. What was I doing? But I still wanted it. It's the single most horrifying feeling I've had. The absolute need for pain.

I slammed my torso against the wall, over and over again, until I collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, panting and glaring at the wall. Eventually my breath slowed, and though the idea to get up and try again was tempting, each failed attempt had cleared the fog in my mind a little bit more, and now I was in control of my body, actions and thoughts again. I wondered breifly what had possessed me to want to injure myself so badly, but I pushed the thought away, fearing losing myself to the madness that had taken hold before once more.

My thoughts strayed to Paul. I wondered where he was; why he wasn't here with me. I thought about the kiss we'd shared. I tried to keep hold of the image of him I had in my mind, going over it again and again, hoping to etch it into my mind. It didn't do him justice, but it was all I had of him.

I don't know how long I just sat there, retracing Paul's image in my mind, but it felt like a life time. But sometime later, I heard the latch of the door to the padded cell turning from the outside, and unlocking with a clank. I watched with cat-like eyes as the door slowly swung open, and a man stepped in, turning so that I couldn't see his face, and closing the padded door behind him. I took him in from behind; tall, with messy black hair. His posture was relaxed as he turned to me. "Hello, love," Cade greeted me with a grin. It wasn't the Cade that had attacked me what seemed to be years ago. It was the one who told me he loved me... and meant it. But I was cautious. I stood up, backing into the wall. His grin didn't falter in the slightest. "They told me your paranoia was a little strong today."

Paranoia? They? I watched him closely as he made his way toward me. He stopped, far enough away that I would be abble to get away if he lunged for me. if he was human, that is. The green of his eyes told me he was, but... I couldn't believe it. I'd never been one to be paranoid. I seriously doubt I'd be put into an asylum for it.

Something in his eyes changed, and for a second they flashed crimson. I looked around me, seeing if there was another door leading out of here, but there wasn't. There was only one entrance and exit to my cell, and Cade stood in my path. I glared at him harshly. He looked back at me calmly. I continued to glance throughout my cell, but finally accepted that there was nothing for it. I charged forward, seeming to surprise him, and raced past him, running for the door. I slammed into the padding and screamed. "Help! Help me! Someone, please-" My plea for help was cut off by the familiar feeling of icy marble fingers clamping around my mouth. I fruitlessly continued to scream into his hand.

He looked at he, his eyes bright red and his face contorted in rage. "Shut up!" he whisper yelled at me harshly. "You'll wake the dead." This made me stop my screaming. I'll wake the dead? Did that mean he'd killed my captors? I stared at him, and before I knew it, he was hugging me, burying his face into the crook of my neck. "I love you, Sydney, and we'll be together. Forever."

I screamed as he sunk his teeth into my neck.

I waited for the teeth to leave my flesh. To feel something. But there was nothing. I felt nothing. Had I died? Had my vampire ex-boyfriend killed me? I slowly let my eyes open, and the white padded cell I'd been in was gone, replaced with a dark room with a single lamp hanging from the ceiling. The lamp illuminated a large circle of the floor, which I was just barely in. I looked around, and found myself sore beyond all belief. Only then did I realize that my arms were raised above my head, bound there by chains, as well as my ankles below me. I wasn't standing at all, but rather chained up on a wall, not even touching the floor. And as I looked down, I also realized I was wearing nothing, my alabaster pale skin illuminated by the lamp.

And he was here too. Cade stepped out of the shadows, looking handsome as ever. His unruly black hair was combed so that it didn't look quite so tousled, and he wore a dark green button up with black slacks. One of his hands absently stroked his chin as his eyes raked over my bear body. "Beautiful," he breathed.

I fought against the chains to cover myself, but they held fast, keeping me on display for him to ogle at. I shook my head, letting my long hair fall over me, giving me some protection from his eyes. Before I had finished, a hand closed around my throat. I coughed as my air supply was suddenly cut off. I looked at Cade, and he glared back at me. "If you ever try to cover yourself from me again, I will not hesitate to cut off all of that pretty hair of yours." His hand tightened ever so slightly around my neck. "Do we understand each other?"

I didn't answer. I stared down at him from where I was chained onto the wall. If he had wanted to kill me, he would have done it by now. I wasn't frightened. Not now. He'd threatened my hair, not me. He wanted me to be his, not dead. "What do you want, Cade?" I choked.

He smiled at me, predatory. "Just what I've been telling you, Sydney. You to be mine, forever." The way he said it, so simple. But he wanted to own me, now. Not love me. And no matter what he thought, I knew this to be true. His hand unlatched from around my throat, tracing my collar bone. But I knew he was looking at the spot on my neck where my pulse raced. He was no longer capable of the emotions he'd felt for me as a human, and he'd never be the same man he'd been before all this. He slowly traced one of his hands up and around my neck, and gently bent my neck down so that he could lightly press his lips to mine.

But the kiss soon turned hungry as he fought to gain access to my mouth, and in his haste, he bit into my lip. I whimpered as he backed off. He straightened his shirt. "I'm sorry, Sydney. I really am. But this is the only way we can ever be together again." He stepped out of the light, into the shadows, and just like that, he was gone.

The taste of iron slowly built up in my mouth, and my skin crawled. A weird feeling built up in me. The tingling that started in my fingers and toes slowly spread through the rest of my body. All at once, the tingling in my fingers turned to intense heat. I cried out as flames licked at my fingers, and made their way up my arms. I felt like every bone in my body was breaking, and re-breaking every second the fire licked at my skin, but didn't burn.

I held it in as long as I could, but I screamed. The pain was agonizing. The worst thing I'd ever gone through in my life. I felt as if I were burning in hell-fire and being stabbed in the same instant. My skin was melting off and being sliced open. But most prominent of all was the intense mental pain I was having. My brain felt as if it were being cut apart by kiddie scissors, slowly and painfully being pulled apart, lobe by lobe. I made to grab at my head, but I couldn't; my arms were still chained to the wall. I could vaguely hear voices in the background - panicked voices that were talking to each other hurriedly, and were getting louder and louder by the second.

_"Somebody wake her up!"_

The voice was angelic and in agonizing pain, as if he were experiencing what I was feeling as well. Another voice chimed in. This one was closer. And this one I knew by heart. _"Syd. Sydney! Wake up!"_ I wanted to; believe me. _"Baby, please wake up."_ I felt something warm touch my cheek, and it chased the flames away, and slowly, they receded.

My eyes flew open as I finally escaped the frightening depths of my subconscious. Paul was leaning over me, and I half sat up, latching my arms around his neck tightly and burying my face into his chest. And I cried. The force of the sobs shook my whole body. Paul wrapped his arms around me as well, gathering me up and setting me in his lap, like a small child. And I felt like a small child. I was absolutely petrified of what I had just seen - what my mind had created. I pressed closer to him still, and he stroked my back. "Shh, you're okay." he whispered, trying to calm me.

"Don't leave me," I begged him.

"Never."

* * *

**A/N: Well, I'm sure you guys are pissed at me. I certainly would be. It's been nearly a month since I updated. I know all the POV changes are probably getting kind of old now, so the next chapter will be mostly Sydney; I swear. I will explain some of this in the next chapter. Like what was going on with Sydney, besides her apparent psychosis. It'll also start in Paul's POV so that we can see what was happening to Sydney outside her dreams.**

**And now my excuse for my delay. I was disappointed in a lack of reviews, aside from being busy, and figured the longer I waited to update, the more reviews I'd get. It worked - kinda, but I didn't realize it was taking so long, otherwise I would have gotten over my stupid pride. So, again, so sorry. :(**

**Lets get onto the author roast, shall we?**

**Tell me what you think! PLEASE! I want to be critiqued! It's fun! It's why I put controversial stuff in my FanFictions. I also liked to be flamed, sadistic as it is, because one of my first reviews was a flame, so now I feel anything that doesn't have some sort of a critique is someone being nice, unless they name specific things they like. Which is why I want to know this: Who's your favorite couple? Who's your favorite friendship? What's you favorite line? Do you hate Cade? Do you love him? I'm trying to make him a charming obsessive freak vampire; am I succeeding? Do you guys want to know who Jack and Grace are? What was your favorite scene from this chapter? What was your favorite scene from any chapter? Do you wish Jassy would shut up? Sometimes I do.**

**Also, I need some more songs, so if anyone could suggest some for me, I'd really appreciate it. :)**

**Until we next meet.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: ... I got nothing.**

**Songs:**

**Breakeven (Falling to Pieces) - The Script  
Love the Way You Lie - Eminem (feat. Rihanna)  
Mine - Taylor Swift  
My First Kiss (feat. Ke$ha) - 3OH!3  
Never Say Never - Justin Bieber (feat. Jaden Smith)  
Ridin' Solo - Jason Derülo  
Technologic - Daft Punk****  
Whataya Want From Me - Adam Lambert**

Chapter 9

Three Words; I Love You

* * *

Carlisle immediately set to work examining her as soon as I'd set her down. I backed up, knowing I didn't like him touching her, and knowing if I allowed myself, I would try and stop him. Embry patted me on the back, but he was worried too. He and Syd were like siblings - joined at the hip. He finished his cursory examination, and started stitching the wound on her head together again. I noticed Carlisle's eyes kept moving upward, as if he were looking at something through the ceiling. My ears weren't as sharp as the vamp's, but I saw his lips move, whispering something.

He finished stitching up her head, and cut the thread. He'd done a good job, as far as I could tell, but I hadn't needed stitches for almost three years now, and even then, I'd only had them twice in my life. But it was nice and even, and she didn't wince, even when he ran his fingers across the seam her skin had made.

"Paul, isn't it?"

I looked up at the sound of my name, and saw Carlisle looking at me. I nodded, wondering how the hell he remembered that. We'd never been introduced, or anything, and I hadn't seen him since we'd all risked our necks saving Nessie, two years ago. Once Jake's pack had officially broken off, and taken patrol off the rez, I hadn't gone anywhere near them. He stood and offered me a hand, and though it was unusual behavior for me, I took it. "Is she going to be okay?"

He looked back at her. He'd cleaned her head off so that the only indication of what she'd suffered was the dried blood on her neck and shirt, what was left in her hair the row of stitches that stretched across the right side of her head. "She seems to be out of immediate danger and stable." He looked directly at me, his eyes sharp. "Was she attacked by a vampire?"

The whole room seemed to hold it's breath, waiting for my answer. "Yeah, she was." I say. I didn't want to admit it aloud, but it was the truth. "He knew her. Before he was changed, is my guess. He kept saying that she'd come to him and they'd be together, forever." I swallowed hard. "He was... obsessive. The only reason I was able to keep him at bay was because she started bleeding, and the scent caught the wind. He lost his mind; went into a frenzy. He lost all tactical advantage, and I was able to fend him off."

Carlisle nodded gravely. He knew how hard it was for me to think about her in that position. "Yes, well," he started, clearing his throat, "I have a question about something I came across while I was examining her for other injuries."

I nodded. "Name it." I assured him. I was calm now; I was sure I could handle it.

He motioned for me to follow him over to where she was laid out on the table. He took her jaw gently in his hands and lifted it up, exposing her neck. On her neck were large patches of purple and blue. Where the bruises weren't spread, it was red and somewhat swollen. "Do you recall her having these before... tonight's incident?" I could tell by his voice that he was hoping the answer was yes, that I'd seen them before; that they'd been caused by some fall or accident that she'd had. I wished that my answer could be yes too. Because everyone in this room knew what it meant for my answer to be no.

"No," I said, hating myself for it. "She didn't have those before tonight. I would have noticed." And I would have killed the bastard who did that to her, but that's beside the point. The point was that he'd gotten close to getting what he wanted. Too close to what he wanted - to her.

Carlisle looked me in the eyes, and the kindness held there showed me he understood that this was torturous for me. Quite possibly the worst thing I've ever gone through. But at least she was here, being taken care of and watched over. "Right," he started, taking off his stethoscope and putting it into the little medical box he had brought with him. "Well, we'll watch over her for tonight. You boys can stay in here with her. Maybe some of Emmett's clothes might fit you..." He never finished what he was saying because at that moment, Sydney gave a violent jerk on the table. Every eye turned to her still form. I was almost questioning if I'd actually seen it or not when she jerked again. Carlisle quickly took his stethoscope back at and walked at a brisk pace to her bed-side and laid the instrument against her sternum. "Her heart's racing." He looked to me, perplexed.

Sydney gave a sharp cry, lurching upwards again in an almost seizure-like move. Immediately, both Embry and I moved to restrain her. Embry grabbed both her legs while I held her torso down. She thrashed under our holds, trying to escape from whatever it was that was doing this to her. Carlisle immediately started checking her. He timed her pulse before getting out a little pen light and checking both her eyes with it. Even in sleep, they were wide and frantic.

"Sydney," Carlisle tried, trying to still her enough to keep checking her. "Sydney, what's wrong?" She was shaking violently under my arms. I saw Embry struggling to keep hold of her legs. "Sydney, can you talk to us?" She answered his question with a high pitched scream so loud and blood curdling that I felt the urge to hold her tight and protect her from the sure terror she was facing. I don't care how much her scream was was hurting me. My one and only goal was to keep her safe. I pinned her with one arm and attempted to hold her head in one place.

Her scream cut off frighteningly fast. Almost as if she'd lost her air source. And, as if on cue, her hands snaked up, gripping at her throat, but also tearing at it, as if she were trying to rip a hand away from herself. I heard her skin ripping under her nails, and soon gave up pinning her in favor of keeping her from tearing into her skin any further.

Bella had backed away, still being somewhat new at this, But Emmett and Nessie jumped in, holding her down as Carlisle stared at her, a calculating look on his features, as if he were seeing something that wasn't there; something that didn't add up. I heard a grunt from the floor above me, and the stairs creaked loudly. A weakened and pained looking Cullen - the blond who'd been the one to teach us to fight newborns - clumsily made his way down the stairs. I'd never seen a bloodsucker looked so crippled, but he looked... like Sydney. The look in his eyes mirrored hers, which had flown open, blind and terrified. "Somebody wake her up!"

I let go of her hands and gingerly cupped her face with one of my hands, and supported her neck with the other. "Syd," I called to her, but got no response other than more terrified screaming. I wanted nothing more than to know what she was seeing - feeling - and to stop it. "Sydney! Wake up!" Still nothing. I stroked her cheek with my fingers. "Baby, please wake up." I begged.

She seized up again, her eyes taking on life, and before I could even breathe, she'd launched herself up, wrapping her arms around my neck. I snaked my arms around her back and held her up, bringing her to rest in my lap. She curled in closer to me, and my hand loosely rubbed at her back in a comforting motion. "Shh, you're okay," I soothed her.

Her arms constricted around my neck. "Don't leave me," she whimpered.

"Never."

* * *

Paul loaded me into the back of the truck, wrapping me in a thick blanket to keep me warm, as one of the women in the house - Bella, I think they said her name was - had replaced my dirty bloodstained clothes with a summery dress, which it was far too cold for. Paul then got in next to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I shivered, knowing the last person who had done this had been trying to kill me.

No, not person. Just like Bella, and all the others, weren't people either.

Embry crawled into the front seat, jamming the keys into the ignition without so much as looking back at Paul and I. I'd tried to say something to him inside, but his face had gone stony. I squirmed underneath the blanket, trying to edge as close to Paul as I could while confined by the seat belt. I leaned my head onto his shoulder, not really minding that the seat belt was pressing into the bruises on my neck. It was worth it to me now. Up until this point, I'd been using my arms to cling to the blanket, but now I let myself relax as I melted into the warmth that Paul naturally radiated. It was safe; I was safe. I closed my eyes, momentarily forgetting all I'd seen and just enjoyed the sensations that ran through me at his touch.

"Sydney?" Paul asked, and I maneuvered my neck so that I could look up at him easily. His brown eyes were full of worry and something else. "Sydney, do you remember what happened to you tonight? Do you know who that family back there was?" The words struck me, but I nodded.

I looked Paul straight in the eye and let my mouth form the words of their own accord. "Vampires; all of them. Except the one girl." I paused. "I was attacked by one tonight." It wasn't a question, but Paul nodded, looking at me as if I were about to burst into tears and run away screaming. Maybe he was concerned I would. All these ideas frightened me, yes, but I knew I had to face all this if I wanted to have a relationship with Paul, which I did. Badly. "I knew him, when he was a live." I told him, looking away from his eyes. "He was my ex boyfriend."

I felt Paul's muscles tense underneath his skin, and I subconsciously put my hand on his bicep to soothe him. I could almost see the thoughts running through his mind; seeing me and him hugging and kissing.

"You and Embry and... everyone. You're all werewolves."

"No." The flat, hard response from Embry stung as he turned another corner, clenching the steering wheel much harder than necessary. "Not everyone. Leah is part of the actual pack... all the other girls are human." He seemed... angry. I didn't know why. It confused me, that he should be mad at me for something I had no control over. But I'd also been mad at my dad after he'd died. It was something you couldn't argue with, unreasonable anger. It was just there to be dealt with.

Paul's grip tightened around my shoulder and he glared at the back of Embry's seat. "Embry." His voice was warning and short, and Embry said nothing more, just slumped in his seat, tensed. Paul turned to see me, and said, "Sydney, there's another part to us being wolves."

I cocked my head to the side, wondering why he sounded so pained. It couldn't be all that bad, could it? "Yeah?" I asked, reaching up to grasp the hand around my shoulder reassuringly. "What is it?"

His hand gently slid out of mine, and came to rest down at his side. I tried not to look into this so much, and just looked at him, waiting. "There's something called imprinting," he started slowly, glancing up to guage my reaction. I stared back at him calmly, not at all phased by the word, whatever it may mean. "It's something that we really didn't think was all that common, but... it seems we were misled." I crinkled my brow in confusion. He was starting to babble a little bit, and I really didn't understand what he was saying. What was imprinting? And as if he were reading my mind, he looked up at me suddenly - his eyes intense and striking. "Imprinting happens when a wolf meets... his soul mate, I guess, is the only was to describe it. You're instantly drawn to them, and them to you. Sam and Emily, Jared and Kim, Quil and Claire - all imprinted." I could feel my eyes going wide. "You and I - imprinted."

I knew I'd felt something the day I met him. I'd thought myself crazy... but here was the explanation, crazy as it may be, ready and waiting for me. And what scared me is that I was so ready to just believe it all. "I-I, erm, I," I stumbled, my eyes searching frantically for something to say, as if it would just appear. "I need to talk to Emily."

Paul took on a wounded look at my words, but nodded. He seemed to understand my need to talk to the sort-of leader of the pack's women, including Leah. She was our mother figure as much as she was to the boys, and even more to us. She provided for everyone, and she provided a role-model for us girls. She had to know about this better than anyone. I settled back against the seat and just took a big breath.

Shit.

-Forever His-

The drive to Emily's house was a short one that held a ringing silence in my ears. Embry was still pissed about something or other, and Paul was... complacent. He hadn't said anything since I'd told him I needed to talk to Emily, and had scooted as far away from me as possible, and damn that had hurt a lot more than it was supposed to. Or maybe just as much as it was supposed to. I was questioning everything now. Was Embry mad at me cause I knew?

We pulled up in front of Sam and Emily's and Paul, despite the pain that shone in his eyes, he gathered me up in the blanket and carried me to the door. Emily was waiting, baby in her arms, to recieve us. She told Paul to set me down at the table. He nodded, but said nothing, and I instantly felt a pull in my chest at the absence of his lulling voice. He sat me down in a chair that had two mugs in front of it, and one whiff of both told me that one was filled with coffee and the other was filled with hot cocoa. The door shut behind Paul, and Emily came into the room, setting baby Nick in a bassinet next to his sister, and sliding into the seat across from me. She gave me a warm smile and said, "Pick your poison."

I almost snorted at her humor, but opted for the one full of coffee. Emily picked up her own mug and took a sip as well, and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked, sleep deprived and touseled as she was.

"I imagine you have questions," she said as she set the mug down in front of her and leaned forward on her arms. "I've sent Sam to bunk with Kim and Jared for the night, so its just us and the babies. I've sent out word that no boys are allowed over here - just for tomorrow," she added at my look, "and that tomorrow all the girls are to be present for a girls' day. It's up to you if you feel comfortable enough to invite Leah."

I nearly coughed up my coffee and sputtered. "No," I hurried, "Please, invite Leah." If anything, having Leah there would make me feel all the more at ease.

Emily smiled at me and took another sip of her cocoa. "Good." she said shortly - approvingly. "You're taking this much better than I did. And the way I found out was scarcely as frightening as yours." Her features softened a little more and she reached her bronzed hand toward where I had laid one of mine flat against the table. "It must have been terrible. Sydney... are you going to be alright?"

The concern in her voice was touching and felt almost maternal. I gently turned my hand so that I might clasp hers. My grasp was light and butter-fly like, but it reassured me. "I will be fine, Em. This is just going to take some getting used to."

"That it will," she chuckled softly, "that it will." She sighed softly, patting my hand and then returning both hands to clasp the mug. My hands felt cold, so I did the same, but made no movement to take a drink. "So," she started, "I imagine you want me to start from the very begining."

I nodded. She started with the tribal legends, and I was transfixed on them for the hours yet to come all the way till dawn. We were only interrupted when the shrill cry of one of the babies would pierce the lull of Emily's tale. Em would pick them up and cater to whatever was causing their cry, and then the story would resume. It was only when the early lights of dawn poked through the window did I start to feel the reaches of my exhaustion caused by the night before. The terror, as I was just then realizing, had drained me completely, and left me battered and bruised. When I went to the restroom, I discovered a ring of bruising around my neck that was near every color of the rainbow, and there was a line of stitching right down my forehead that was bordered by yet more bruising and blood-matted hair. The circles under my eyes were deep enough to have been bruises themselves.

When I returned to Emily, she was gently rocking one of the babies to sleep and humming. "Aren't I a sight," I said quietly, and she laughed quietly.

"Paul still thinks you're beautiful."

She said it surely and simply, turning away from me to watch the brilliant splay of colors light the morning sky as the sun rose. Yellows and pinks were thrown across the sky messily and, the clouds splashed with their tint. It was quite the sight, a Washington sun-rise, because though the sky was clouded and the tree-line was thick, it still was a sign of hope and of beauty.

As the sun rose higher in the air, the sky changed from the magnificent sprawl of colors to a dim grey and blue. Patches of the sky were visible through the thick blanket of clouds, and through those patches, the suns rays penatrated, like spot lights on a darkened stage. This is where I found myself staring as I listened to Emily go through some of the finer points of werewolves that I would have to know if I wanted to stick around. She told me all about their appetites, their body heat, their anger problems and I felt as if I couldn't know enough. I felt that all of this was vital to me, just as it was vital to them.

"Alright," Emily said after she'd finished telling me a funny story about Sam and Jake, "I think its time you and I got some rest. The girls will be here in about five hours."

With this, she retired to her room, and I lay myself down on the couch. The view of the forest meeting up with the beach was spectacular, and I looked outwards as far as my sight would let me and watched the distant waves that rolled and crashed into the shore. And, for a moment, just before I let my eyes close, I could swear that I saw a large wolf emerge from the tree line. And it looked right at Sam and Emily's house, right through the window, right at me - perhaps even right through me. But in that moment, I knew it was him, watching me - watching over me - and I never felt safer. As my eye-lids drifted slowly shut, I murmured, "Thank you, Paul."

-Forever His-

Six hours later, after the girls had finished fawning over me and making sure I wasn't going to go into shock - cough cough, Claire, cough cough - we were sitting around, having a Johnny Depp movie marathon, simply for the fact that Johnny can make anyone feel better. That, and all the movies that Orlando Bloom is in are long trilogies. Leah had sat there for about twenty minutes, trying to cover up the bruising around my neck, but it didn't work. Great, now I look like the poster child for domestic abuse.

We were chowing on brownies and cookies and gummies. It was most yummy. Em had drawn the curtains and turned off the lights so that we sat in almost total darkness, except the glow of the TV screen. Em, also, during some point, had managed to trade off the babies to Sam without me noticing, but I had no idea how, since I had only been out of her sight and her out of mine twice, both under two minutes. Right now, Johnny was traversing across the screen, dressed as constable Ichabod Crane, and Kim in particular was immersed in the scene as he said that they must never move the body.

The remote was between Claire and I, since she was a famous remote hog - she claimed she got it from watching TV with Quil, who flipped channels constantly - so I grabbed it up and pressed the power button, effectively shutting off the TV and our light source. There was a series of exclaims and I felt gummies pelt me from behind - the doing of Leah, I'm sure.

"Why'd you turn off Johnny?" Kim whined from my right, and the others joined in on her exclaim, which made me giggle. Leah, Kim and Emily were all full grown women, yet they were acting like teenagers.

I turned on the flashlight, which we'd been using earlier whilst watching Sweeney Todd because it scared the bejeezus out of Claire, and it up so it shined upwards, illuminating a large circle on the ceiling and parts of everyone's faces. It was ominous looking, but at the same time, completely awesome. And the gummies that were bouncing off my back were now aimed with much more accuracy. "I was hoping you guys could give me the dirt on the guys," I said, grinning deviously, "I need to get them back for keeping it a secret so long." I added an evil cackle for effect, which caused everyone to relax. It had been clear they'd been avoiding certain terms and names all day. They were worried about how I was faring, despite how much I told them I was fine. I guess no one had taken it as well as I.

The scooted in towards the flashlight, Leah getting down on the ground next to me. Her face was very poorly lit, since she sat half way behind me, and looked malformed and most evil. I found this appropriate and stopped her from moving any closer, less the effect be lost.

The all started speaking at once, but Em held up a finger which inspired silence. Everyone looked towards her expectantly, as if she were going to impart some great wisdom. "First," she said sagely, "I suggest we impart the technique of controlling your wolf." Everyone awed at this suggestion, and I found my grin widening. This sounded like a great place to start.

"Ooooooh, ooooh, pick me, pick me!" Claire proclaimed, raising her hand as high as she could, and I laughed, pointing to her. She sighed deeply and put her arms out in front of her as if she was about to say something huge and life changing. "When arguing with an imprint, if you don't break first, you will always win." Everyone else nodded in agreement, and my smiled widened at this info; that would come in handy. "And if all else fails, start hyperventilating, crying or threaten to harm yourself. They will do anything to stop any of the above."

"Example," Kim stated, "the other day Jared and I were arguing the venue for our wedding, and I told him I would stick a fork in my arm if he continued to insist that we get married on his grandparents farm. Instantly, his resolve disappeared, and I won." She paused, her brow creasing with a bit of a frown. "Though, I haven't been able to find a fork in the house since then."

Everyone started laughing hysterically at this, except for Kim who still seemed put out at the lack of forks. "The lesson there," Leah said to me, "never threaten to hurt yourself with something you either need, or something that can be taken away. Or just don't specify how you'll hurt yourself." Leah grinned at Emily, and Emily grinned back, obviously in on something that the rest of us were not privy to. "Em knows that secret all too well."

"That's also a great was to get attention if you really need it," Claire told, though she sounded like she was pretty skeptic that I would ever need to use this for attention purposes. "It freaks them out enough that they can't focus, and their respective alphas have to let them off of patrols because having them there is more dangerous than not."

"Example," Em volunteered, "When I was in the middle of my pregnancy, I had all sorts of odd cravings, and..." she trailed off, her giggles interrupting her speech, "I kind of hinted to Sam that I might hurt myself if I tried to run to the store in the middle of the night." At this point Leah and Kim started laughing too, and Claire still seemed to be trying to hold her own in. "He not only made a new pack law - after an imprint's fourth month of pregnancy, the wolf responsible and imprinted on her is assigned no patrol time; the only exception being if several pregnancies overlap - but he literally did not sleep at night for two months, just in case I decided I wanted to be independent."

At this point, Claire couldn't contain her laughter either, so I assumed we were getting close to the punchline. "Well, one night, I get up, go into the kitchen to make some ice cream. I somehow manage to slice my finger with a spoon. Sam comes running out of our room, car keys in hand, and telling me we were going to the hospital right then and there, and that I'm not allowed to drive until my pregnancy is over. Somehow, the scent of my blood to his sleep deprived mind made him think 'car wreck.' To this day, if you ask what happened that night, he'll tell you car wreck, and then he'll check me for broken bones."

"Just be glad he doesn't know it was the spoon," Kim interjected, rolling her eyes, "all your spoons might suddenly disappear. And then eating soup would become a bitch."

"As would cooking," Leah added sympathetically, nodding her head.

I rocked on my haunches at this story. I didn't find it as funny as they did - yeah, it was funny, just because it was Sam, who was supposed to be mature and rational, but I dunno, there just seemed to be something about the story that made it a little less funny than it should have been. "So," I started, "I know that the boys didn't realize how they felt about you until after they imprinted, but did any of you like them, you know, beforehand." I looked around the circle of other girls, but only Kim's hand went in the air.

"I sat next to Jared in a class for more than a year before he imprinted on me," Kim said with a slight grin. "I was totally transfixed by him, and I put his last name together with my first on the inside of my journals." She sighed happily. "So naturally, I was thrilled when I found out."

I looked at Emily and Claire, and there was some sort of silent agreement that Claire would go first, I suppose, because she didn't even hesitate or look at Em to confirm it was her turn. "I met Quil at school, and he was already a wolf, so he imprinted, but didn't tell me about until I was so head-over-heels that it wouldn't have mattered if he had a Siamese twin." The look on her face was a blissful smile as she remembered her imprint - because, as I had learned first hand, the imprint works two ways.

"What about you, Em?" I asked.

But Em didn't answer me. Instead, Leah piped up from beside me. "You know, Sam was actually dating me first, right?" she asked, and I instantly felt my jaw drop. I shook my head dumbly at her, my eyes wide. Leah looked... subdued. Like she was still sad about it, but she was okay now, or, as okay as she could be. "Sam was dating me when he first transformed. I, of course, didn't know anything, as I was one of the last to transform." She gave a small bitter laugh. "And one day, he just tells me that he doesn't love me like that anymore, and that he's in love with my cousin, who was like a sister to me." At this point she smiled at Em who smiled back warmly, brightly. "I was mad at them for a long time, but when I joined Jake's pack, and I didn't have to constantly hear about it, all that started to kind of fade into the background. And now, I couldn't be happier for them."

Her expression told me that what she said was the truth. And I could also tell that she was happy to have her sister back in her life. I turned to look back at Em, and she nodded. "Yes, that is the truth. But when I found out, I tried to shun it. For a short while. But once, Sam got angry, and changed right in front of me," her hand absently went up and traced the scars that ran the length of her face, "and that's how I got these. You ask anyone outside the pack, they'll tell you bear attack, but the truth is, being with a werewolf is dangerous."

"But worth it," Kim interjected. "You will never feel more loved than when they hold you in their arms and tell you you are their world. And that their love for you will never die or lessen. It will always be you to whom their heart truly belongs."

"Yes," Emily agreed, "totally worth it." She sighed and wrung her hands. "After the accident, Sam nearly tore himself up in grief, and in this, I saw how true his love was," she gave a short, humorless laugh, just like the one Leah had not a few minutes before, "and I was so angry at myself for it taking that sort of thing for me to realize it. But eventually, I was able to forgive myself for my mistake; Sam never could." She looked at the window, and I saw her fiddling with her wedding ring. The rain was starting to splatter it in a distorted image, but there was just enough dull light to make out the beach. "He can never forgive himself for what he did. He's still guilty, no matter what I tell him."

Claire said, "All of them are like that; self-tormenting."

There was a short silence, and I could feel the weight it held as all four women looked at me, and then at one another, silently debating something. I looked around at each in turn, but they all averted their eyes from mine. Emily held my gaze, and her lips moved, as if to speak, but no sound came from her. Leah stared down at her lap, Kim at the blank TV screen and Claire at the window.

Leah glanced up from her lap, and the look in her eyes practically commanded my silence, so as to hear what she said. "That's how Paul is feeling right now." She took in a shuddering breath, "He feels as if last night were all his fault. He loves you so much, and he feels responsible. I bet he's near."

"They all are, I'm sure," Emily added, a good-natured roll of the eyes accompanying this statement. "They'll do that on days they don't have patrol; stay near us. If one of us screamed right now, they'd probably come running before we'd had time to blink." But this didn't seem to annoy her. In fact, it seemed like a pleasant thing, to have a group of people who could protect you from almost everything so ready to be right there for you.

Claire caught my eye, and though her usual personality was sort of flippant, and maybe even slightly shallow, the understanding in her eyes was undeniable. "They're here for you too." she said. I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face, or the blush I could feel blooming in my cheeks. "Every last one of them."

"And they all love you." Kim added with a nod.

"And I love him," I said absently. But I blinked. And then I blinked again. I put my fingers to my lips, tracing them, trying to find the source of the sentence. My eyes were wide, and as I looked at the others, they seemed to share my surprise. Had I really just said that? I knew I had, but could it be possible? Did I love Paul? And right in that moment, I knew. I knew I did. That I loved him, or was beginning to at least. "I love him. I love him," I repeated, the reassurance coloring my voice in happiness. "I love him!" I exclaimed, and each of the other girls eyes grew wider in excitement and they all glowed in their shared happiness for me. I was breathing hard - it felt as if I had run a thousand miles. But I could run a thousand more. I scrambled to my feet, and headed toward the front door before I knew what I was doing.

"Sydney, it's raining outside!" someone laughed, but I paid it no mind.

The screen door shut behind me, and I ran a bit of the ways out, toward the general direction of the beach. Once I hit the sand, I was like a bullet; I almost slid off my feet at more than one point as the fine paste beneath my feet shifted. I breathed harshly, inhaling some water droplets, but hardly noticing. I stopped about twenty yards from the water-line and just looked around; there was nothing, besides me, the gray sky, the crashing waves, and the rain. I brought my hands up to cup around my mouth.

"PAUL!"I shouted loudly, and then again. I heard something, and twisted round, but saw nothing. I called his name again, but was met with the crashing of another wave against the shore, and the rain beating harder upon me. My smile was slowly starting to fade from my face as I stared at the emptiness. The euphoric feeling that had fueled me to this point started to recede, leaving a trembling chill.

I don't know what I was expecting, running out here like this. Some crazy, staged romantic scene from one of those cheesy movies that every teenage girl secretly loves to watch, I suppose. But I hadn't expected to be left out here, alone, and in the pouring rain. It was disappointing, to say the least. I wrapped my arms around myself as I started shaking, tears hidden by the rain, and backed away from my spot on the beach.

Arms slipped around my shoulders from behind, engulfing me in warmth. "You shouldn't be out in the rain," he said, burying his face into the crook of my neck.

I sniffed, and grabbed one of his hands in my own. "Oh really? I'm not supposed to be out here? Could have fooled me."

He gently turned my around in arms so that I faced him. His eyes were soft, vulnerable. I could see that he was trying not to let himself hope; let himself think this was anything more than it was. "Now what do you mean by that?" he asked.

I smiled, slipping my arms up and around his neck. "Well," I started, "the way I see it, you're out in the rain, and I belong in your arms, so therefore," I let my hand trail down to the front of his shirt to where the collar was and grabbed it in my fist, "I belong in the rain - with you."

His smiled could have stopped the rain. "Maybe you do."

And I brought him down to my height for our second kiss.

"I love you."

* * *

**A/N: I so don't care how long it takes me anymore, as long as I get it out.**

**Tell me what you think. Review! PLEASE! For a starving writer?**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: ... I still got nothing. Three months later and I've got absolutely nothing witty or remotely funny.  
**

**WARNING: Yelling match bellow may contain some very violent and silly name calling.  
**

**Songs:**

**Beauty and the Beast - Jordin Sparks  
Buckbeak's Flight - John Williams  
Better Than Revenge - Taylor Swift  
Cannibal - Ke$ha  
Hedwig's Theme - John Williams  
Mean - Taylor Swift****  
Pain - Three Days Grace  
Runaway - Avril Lavigne  
Sick and Tired - Anastacia  
Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) - Shakira**

Chapter 10

Making Progress

* * *

Paul carried me inside the house, and within, I saw a conglomeration of various men and women, all wearing bright smiles. Sam was the first to approach me, his hair plastered to his face by the rain, and picked me up in a giant bear hug. "Welcome, little sister," he whispered into my ear, but I now knew that almost everyone in the room had heard him, with the exception of the imprints. I grinned ear to ear as he set me down. "I think this one needs a hug, gentlemen, what do you think?" My eyes widened. Pack group hug? Oh, shit.

Everyone, including the girls, closed in on me. I tried to move, but Paul trapped me, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Oh, no you don't, little missy." he said teasingly as I kicked up, trying to loosen his hold on me. Oh, Godfrey, now my own imprint is against me. What has the world come to? The pack slowly stalked forward. The bruises. I could tell Paul that a group hug would hurt me because of my bruises! But just as my mouth opened to bring up the subject, Collin and Brady closed in on me, muffling anything I might have said, and I could see out of the little gaps between them that more people were piling in. But the great thing was I could still feel Paul, right behind me, holding onto me tightly. Maybe pack group hugs aren't so bad.

After everyone finished suffocating me with their hug, someone suggested we play truth or dare. 'To bond,' or so Jake claimed, because it was raining outside and 'Sydney has a gash in her head the size of Canada.' Yeah, and I'm gonna give you a bruise the size of Canada, alpha boy, how does that sound?

So I was sitting in the circle, laying on Paul's chest as one of my cleaner dares had been to sit on Paul's lap through seven of my own dares. Naturally, I'd only picked truth since this had been mandated, but they didn't offer me the choice anymore after they figured out my game plan. So after one dare, where I'd been forced to kiss one pack member - not Paul - of my choosing. I cheated and kissed Sam's cheek. Kim, who had been the one daring me, was really pissed that she hadn't specified how I had to kiss someone. Everyone's against the shorty.

Speaking of my being short... "Hey, Embry, I gotta good one for you..." I trailed off, my smile slowly fading as I looked around the circle. How had I not noticed he wasn't there? Or Seth for that matter? Shit, I must be losing it. How did I not notice that my best friend - Embry has officially made it to that status, despite my current threat to his life - and someone I considered t be a brother were missing? "Uh, where's Embry?" I asked after a short silence.

Which was then followed by an uncomfortable silence.

People shifted uncomfortably and Emily and Sam jumped up to 'get the twins' when one of them started making a gurgling sound. What the hell was happening around here. Okay, I must be in shock or something because my temper flared before I could blink. "Enough with the freaking secrecy. Where are Seth and Embry?"

"Embry's... angry," Quil finally said, looking down on the floor in a sort of guilty fashion. "He's angry at you for almost getting yourself killed, irrational as that may be." He took a deep shuddering breath. "But Jake and I, we saw you too. You looked," his face had gone pale and he cringed as he remembered just how I looked after Cade's attack, "you looked horrible; almost dead." Jake nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't ever show anyone what you looked like the night before last, even if I had an option. It was bad, Sydney. Really Bad."

"And then he heard you screaming," Paul said prom behind me, one warm hand against my stomach, my hand intertwined with his. "When we were with Dr. Fangs and his family. He felt helpless." I had the feeling by the tone of his voice that Embry hadn't been the only one feeling helpless. "He told me, after we left you here, that your screams were the absolute worst thing he'd heard in his life. They were the worst I'd heard in mine, too." He buried his face into the crook of my neck and I could feel him breathing in and out, inhaling my scent. I absently stroked his hair while he did this, just to comfort him.

There was a short pause, in which no one seemed to want to add anything. "And Seth?"

Everyone looked at a loss. They all looked at each other, seeing if anyone had the answer. Sam and Emily came in, each holding a twin, but they didn't seem anymore clued in to Seth's whereabouts than anyone else. But one person's behavior stood out to me. Leah was staring steadfastly at the floor, barely moving. I stared at her for a moment. The weight of my gaze must have weighed heavily on her, but no one else seemed to notice. She looked up at me with pleading eyes and mouthed the words, 'Not now.'

I let it go. "Alright then," I said with an over-dramatic sigh, "I guess since Embry's not here, I'll have to make a substitution." I gave an evil grin and every male in the room's face went stony in a 'she-can-smell-fear' sorta way. Except for Paul; he was laughing into my neck and messing with my fingers. If he thought he was safe just because we were soul mates, he had another thing coming. "How about you, Mr. Giggles?"

-Forever His-

I was at home, helping the boys settle into their new rooms and unpack their things. Apparently, this was the first time they'd ever not shared a room with one another or with other people for that matter. Raf had decided that he wanted to pain his room black and then splatter it with neon colors. Leo, being a little more artistic than his twin, was going to paint his walls over in white so he could paint and draw on them whenever he liked. Mom was thrilled that they became comfortable enough to establish a real room quickly. It took me months to even acknowledge that it was my room, let alone do anything with it. But now that we were at a new house, I was making plans to do my room too.

Currently, Raf and I were having a tape war and Leo was snapping picture after picture of us while we attempted to laugh around the tape. I stuck a wad of pink duct tape in Raf's hair and got up, running around his room while he ran after me, red duct tape in hand. "Ahhhhh!"

"What's going on up here?" Dad asked with a laugh as he appeared in the door frame, watching us, amused at our childish behavior. Leo immediately turned around and snapped another shot. I veered at the sight of him and ducked around his lean form, coming up behind him to use as a human shield. "Back! Back I say! Foul demon!" Leo took another picture, and laughed, saying how that one would be a great one when it was developed. I, on the other hand, jumped onto my dad's back and said, "I command the, noble steed, direct me away from the demons!" And made a whipping noise with my mouth for emphasis.

Dad laughed again, but did as I said, turning on heel and running. Raf, after he registered what had just happened, ran after us, red duct tape in his hand, all the while yelling, "Sydney's a cheater!" Leo had also dropped his camera and had come after us, bearing green duct tape. Well, that's no fair. I spurred my dad on as he looped through our roundabout office and clomped down the stairs, me still riding around on his back.

Raf jumped at him, barely missing, but managing to attach a red strip of duct tape to his leg. "I'm hit, Syd, I'm hit!" Dad cried, pretending to limp. "Save yourself, my dear child." He let me get off his back before falling to the ground, 'dead,' apparently. I immediately started running in the general direction of the back door.

"I will avenge you, father!" I cried back, switching directions and heading to the kitchen. I could hear Leo helping Raf off the ground, and ran to one of the drawers, grabbing a roll of blue duct tape before shutting it. I turned to see two ominous, identical shadows standing over dad. Time to put my height to use. I opened the cabinet that led to the hallow space in the island, and slipped in, shutting it behind me, hopefully leaving no evidence as to where I could be. I sat back and listened carefully.

"Sydney," one of the boys called - I couldn't tell which; their voices were eerily similar - and I edged farther back into the cabinet, glad it was empty. "Come out, come out, where ever you are." Okay, if that's what you want, dear little brother of mine, if that's what you want.

I jumped out of the cabinet, quickly tearing off one blue strip and tackling the twin closest to me.

Five minutes later, my mom walked in on me sitting on two wriggling boys who were yelling between their laughter for me to let them go. I just smiled at mom and waved. She laughed loudly, gasping for me to wait until she got the camera. I shrugged, still sitting on my brother's like a queen, grinning like the cat who ate the canary. My mom came back and took a quick shot of the three of us, and then of her husband, who had yet to break character and was still laying on the ground, dead. I loved my family. "Oh, by the way, Sydney," my mom said after she'd finished unbinding Leo's arms, "Leah called earlier, said your cellphone kept going to voice-mail." Oh, right, Kim broke that. She owes me a new phone! "Said she wanted to talk to you."

What could Leah want to talk to me abou- Oh, yeah! That thing about Seth this afternoon; she still owes me an explanation, especially since I covered for her ass.

"Mmkay, thanks mom, I'll be sure to call her back."

And I did call Leah, which is how, not twenty minutes later, we were sitting on the beach, about a mile from where we knew the boys might be - any number of them. We'd talked about a few smaller things, like why my phone wasn't working - KIM! - and how the weather was so nice today, and then we got into why there was a piece of green duct tape stuck to my ass that I hadn't noticed before - very sneaky, Leo, very sneaky - but she'd still yet to get down to the point, and though I was impatient for the answer, I didn't want to push her.

We sat there for a while, staring at the water, until finally, she spoke. "Seth... is good at keeping things from other people, when he wants to," Leah started, not looking at me. "I'm the only one who found out, and that's because he didn't know that I was there. If he had, he wouldn't have been so careless." She went silent for a second. "He doesn't want anyone to know, especially you, but I think you, of all people, have the right to know.

"Seth, from the moment he set eyes on you, had very strong feelings for you. He'd almost thought he'd imprinted, until he saw the way Paul looked at you. Jake and Embry were jealous of the imprint itself, and the fact that Paul had imprinted on someone so beautiful, but Seth - Seth was jealous that Paul got you." She stopped short to give a pained little laugh. "My little brother is so stupid, sometimes, but he knew you from the inside out the moment Jared brought you into the room. He doesn't want to see you with Paul, accepting him in a way that you could never accept Seth. But more than anything, he doesn't want to see you pitying him." She had still yet to look at me, up until this point. "He loves you, you know."

I let a sharp breath escape my throat. Seth loves me. That's a bit... difficult to swallow. Leah turned away from me, leaning back and propping herself up on her arms. The wind blew through, sending both our hair into the air, dancing like ribbons on the breeze. It wasn't fair to him. That's all I could think. Why the hell did he have to fall for me when I could only fall for someone else? Was this a cruel trick to make me regret my love for Paul? Was it my retribution for surviving Cade's attack? Had I died, Seth would have been set free of me.

But I hadn't, and I couldn't let Seth know I knew about his feelings; he would hate himself and Leah for it. No, I had to keep it between Leah and I. With time, maybe Seth would be able to move on, find someone else; someone who could love him like he loved them.

"Okay," I breathed. "Okay." I looked at Leah. "Don't tell him I know. For now, I want things to remain as normal between us as possible. So just don't tell him. I'll figure it out."

Leah shrugged. "I don't know what there is to figure out, but I'll keep quiet."

-Forever His-

I hummed lightly, rocking back and forth on my heels. The weather had gotten a bit colder in the last three days, or maybe that was just Embry's new found icy attitude towards me. He hadn't spoken to me since that night a week ago when I'd gotten hurt. Whenever I was over at Sam and Emily's he wasn't; whenever Paul came around to pick me up from school, he had already gotten Collin and Brady and left. Things between Seth and I had gone back to normal, except for now I was noticing the signs of what Leah had said. A look that lasted too long in my direction, a smile too happy when I gave him a compliment, brushing against me more often than was absolutely necessary.

I wrapped Paul's black jacket closer around myself, having stolen it from his truck yesterday when he picked me up for our second date. That's right, I have an official, full fledged boyfriend! I didn't think that would happen here, of all places, but then, a couple months ago, I also didn't think Cade and I would break up, and he'd be turned into a vampire who is fanatic about getting me back... when the fuck did my life get so messed up?

The wind blew even harder against my back, and I knocked again. "Coming!" a motherly voice responded as I heard the dead-bolt turn and came face to face with a short - and this is coming from _me _- woman, who was wiping her hands off on her apron. This had to be Embry's mother. Her brown eyes glowed with mocha flecks and her hair fell in gentle waves down her back. Embry had clearly gotten her eyes. "Hello, little lady," she greeted in a friendly manner, pushing the door open father and giving me a friendly smile. She couldn't be too much older than Missy - far to young to have a son around my age. "What can I do for you?" The smell wafting out of the house and the smell of cookies that surrounded her like a thick cloud was suddenly very prominent.

I gulped down the saliva that gathered in my mouth and smiled back at her. "Hello, Mrs. Call. I need to speak to Embry, please, if he's available." I hadn't met her yet - in fact, I do believe she is the only pack parent I had yet to meet up until this point. Well, besides Paul's mother, who lived off the reservation.

She smiled warmly at me. "You must be Sydney. Embry talks about about you all the time." I wondered briefly if she meant _talked _about me all the time, but didn't linger on that. "Please, come in. Must be freezing out there - is that Paul's jacket?" She changed her train of thought almost as fast as I inhale vanilla ice cream. "Embry was right," she shook her head with a young laugh, "you've definitely ensnared Paul." For some reason, I didn't like the word 'ensnared.' It made it feel like I'd trapped him, and not like the imprint wasn't mutual. "I always figured Paul would never imprint and just end up with some tough, biker-looking girl. But you're so small and sweet looking; nothing at all like I thought." Was she _trying_ to make me feel uncomfortable? Because if she is, she's doing a smashing job, really. Maybe Embry put her up to it...

I'd followed her through the interior of her small house to her living room. Embry was leaning against the door frame of what I assumed was the kitchen, stone-faced. "Mom," he said, catching her attention and stopping her rambling. "You're doing it again."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Mrs. Call turned to me, looking very apologetic. "I always do this!" Her facial expression turned irked. "I always tell myself, 'Alicia, you aren't going to say the wrong thing to this one. You're going to make her feel welcomed into the pack and you are going to tell them all about the great impact they've had.' But I always mess it up by saying things I shouldn't. I'm sorry, Sydney, dear."

"Oh," well how do I respond to that? "It's alright Mrs. Call."

"Please, call me Alicia. Mrs. Call makes me feel old." She shot a quick glare Embry's way, as if daring him to make a joke. But with the look Embry had on his face, I'm guessing he wouldn't have cracked a joke if she said she still felt seventeen. Alicia seemed to sense the tension between the two of us - or maybe she just saw sparks fly as our steely glares fought against each other. "Cookie?" she asked weakly.

"No, mom," Embry said, speaking for both of us, I suppose. "Sydney came here to talk to me. So let's talk."

I physically winced at the uncaring tone of his voice. Alicia didn't reply; just stood there, looking back and forth between us helplessly before disappearing into the kitchen. Embry turned on heel and headed down the hall that had four doors leading off of it, and then another door that led to their back yard. He led me through the second door on the left, and I immediately knew it was his room. It was distinctly Embry. The bedspread was army green, just like his off-roader, and the sheets underneath were heather gray, slightly mussed, like him. The posters on the wall were of some nice cars, one or two nice looking girls, and a couple movie and band posters. Embry turned on me quickly so that I almost ran into him, not realizing I had been staring at his room and not looking where I had been going. Embry's jaw was set and his eyes were cold. Unreasonable anger? Yeah, this is so past unreasonable.

I mirror his position and cross my arms across my chest. The only reason I came over here is so he would have to talk to me, but I'll be damned if I make the first move in this conversation. He's the one making an ass out of himself, and if he's going to continue to do it, I'm gonna have to slap that ass, as much as its probably going to hurt me. Maybe I'll have Leah do it for me...

"What do you want?" Each word was pronounced crisply, emphasis on every syllable and venom lacing it artfully. Who knew you could convey so much anger into four little words? I'm thinking about cutting to the chase, grabbing the hockey stick in the corner of his room and ramming him in the balls. He deserves it at this point.

I give him an evil little smile, and for a moment, I see a flash of the old Embry - the one who would have been challenging me, but scared at the same time - but before I could blink, his mask had replaced that little glimmer of him. I took a second to smile inwardly to myself. This might be a bit easier than I thought. "Oh, Embry," I said, shaking my head, letting traces of the oncoming threat color my tone, "I want what I always want; revenge, retribution, an _explanation._" My voice turned harder than his eyes and it was his turn to flinch.

He reigned himself in again and scoffed. "Fine then, Syd," my name was acid on his tongue, "take your best shot. Don't worry. I can wait for you to curl up in a ball and start screaming again, clawing at your skin like you're trying to rip yourself apart. Go ahead; I'll wait." Oh, low blow. I'll go lower, jackass. Don't tempt me. I glared harshly at him.

"I hit my head, dick for brains. What's your excuse for tearing me apart?"

I swore that his eyes flared red and his arms shook for a second. I stepped back, but was far from backing down. I had Jake and Quil circling the house right now, in case Embry was rash or made a bad move. They were both ready to come busting in and tear his ass down. I didn't tell Paul what I was up to because he was protective and would never allow it, but this had to be done sometime, and sooner was better than later. But it appeared that Jake and Quil were unneeded for now. Embry took a deep breath, shut his eyes tight and with clear effort on his part, stopped the shaking. He seemed to realize the danger of being in such a small place while discussing such a touchy subject, and through gritted teeth, managed to say, "Maybe we should take this outside."

I gestured for him to go first and he glared at me before brushing past and down the hall, out the screen door. I was feeling snark-y and followed after, mocking his movements with overly big steps and making faces all the way. Basically, I acted like a four year old. The response this earned was a narrowing of the eyes. "You wanna take another hit, Em? I'm open." I lifted up the hair I'd been using to cover up the bruises on the back and sides of my neck. I tapped my jugular with two fingers. "How 'bout right here?"

He looked away from me, horror splayed across his face. I knew I'd hit a nerve. "Don't even joke about that, Sydney."

I gave a sick sounding laugh. Oh, hell no. "Why not?" I asked, sounding frantic. "It's not like you care. You've been acting like I _was_ dead for the past week!" I threw myself into the sentence. I was making jerky little movements with every word I said, a bad habit I had when I was worked up; almost made me look like I was having a mini seizure every other second.

"I THOUGHT _YOU WERE DEAD_!" he bellowed. "Do you wanna see how you looked, Sydney, because I'm sure as hell _never _going to forget it." His eyes were wide and... haunted. "Paul called us to come get your car," he said, shaking again, but not in anger this time; more hysteria. "He didn't tell us anything! And when I got there, do you want to know what the _FUCK _I_ saw_?" His hand went up and grabbed a piece of folded paper from the pocket of his plaid shirt. He unfolded and threw it on the ground in front of me. "I saw THAT!" I looked down at the slip of paper. "I saw Paul fucking grasping at your _corpse_, like he was fucking trying to will the goddamn life back into you!" One of Embry's hands went to the side of his head as he ran his hand roughly through his short hair. I don't think I've ever seen someone look so freaked out. I picked up the piece of paper off the ground.

The paper had five small drawings on it, none of them colored. The first of them was a picture of Paul holding onto something long and slender that was so shadowed over, I couldn't tell what it was. The next was of Paul's face as he looked at the person who was viewing the photo, his face mirroring desperation, the figure in his arms still hidden in vague shadows. The third finally showed the figure, or should I say me. My neck hang somewhat limply off of Paul's arm and one of my wrists was bent in a awkward and painful looking position. The fourth must have been me when I was in the back seat of the truck - I'd begged Paul to tell me what happened while I was out - because I couldn't see my own face. I could see one of my arms bent out, making the shape of a triangle at the back of my head, and my long hair spilling out over the seats, some of it tangled and I could see where he'd made it obvious that it wasn't just tangled, but matted with blood. The last must have been me when they got me to Dr. Cullen. My hair was splayed out underneath me on the flat surface. My bangs had fallen away from my face, revealing the large gash in my forehead, and the hair had fallen away from my neck, revealing a series of bruises. This sketch almost made me look like a body laid out on an autopsy table.

When I looked back to Embry, both hands were gripping the back of his head and he was pacing. "Syd," he breathed, a waver in his voice, "you didn't even look fucking _alive_." There were tears in his eyes when he looked at me, his arms dropping to his sides limply, like he'd lost the will to keep them up. "Shit, Sydney. I thought you were dead." It was a mere whisper.

I fought the tears I knew were glistening on the edges of my own eyes. "Embry," I breathed, letting one tear slide down my cheek, "acting like I'm not here anymore and being mad at me isn't going to erase what you saw. You're just hurting me." That was the last straw. My dam broke and tears began to stream down my cheeks one by one and two by two. A pitiful sob erupted from my chest without my permission, wracking my body and making me shake uncontrollably. "Don't do this to me, Embry," I cried, attempting to wipe away my tears with my sleeve, but my efforts were in vain because fresh ones took their place.

I hadn't even noticed the cold in my rage. Not until Embry wrapped his arms around me, engulfing me in his warmth. I only stopped for a second in my shock. Embry just stood there, but I could see two tear tracks that led down his cheeks. I pressed my face into his chest and cried. He rubbed my back with his hand, bring me closer in to him. "I don't want to hurt you."

I just sat there for a minute, crying my eyes out, and I could swear I could here two very approving barks in the difference. I had my big brother, my partner in crime back. But now I definitely had to get him back for ignoring me for the last week, as well as the incident on the road. I'd do that later, I decided, not wanting to ruin today. It felt nice for everything to feel normal again, and I wanted to keep that feeling for today.

"Hey," I said, sniffing, "you think the offer for that cookie still stands?"

Embry laughed. "Yeah."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, I know it's been three months, but as today was my last day of school for two weeks, I was finally able to finish this baby. I almost started crying while I was writing the last part of this chapter; not even kidding.**

**Anyhow, I should be able to get one more chapter up before my break ends; maybe two if I can figure out a good idea and get it down. But the next one's going to have no major drama, what so ever. In fact, it's going to be three parts of pure filler chapter. It's going to be all about the holidays with the pack. For anyone whose confused, so far this story has been taking place in late September, early October, which is about the time (in the North) when it starts getting cold, but the next, it'll give you actual dates.**

**I love all of you who reviewed and I'm sorry it took so long to reward you, but I hope you enjoy it.**

**So what did you like about it? What did you dislike about it? LET MEH KNOW! **

**Until we next meet.  
**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Happy Holidays, everybody! I hope this a satisfactory Christmas gift/New Years, since I missed Halloween and Thanksgiving!**

**DJ, turn it up!**

**Animal - Ke$ha  
Bass Down Low - Dev & The Cataracs  
Everything Back But You - Avril Lavigne  
Freak the Freak Out - Victorious Cast  
I Hate this Part - Pussycat Dolls  
If U Seek Amy - Britney Spears  
If We Ever Meet Again - Timbaland (feat. Katy Perry)  
Kiss N' Tell - Ke$ha  
Live Like We're Dying - Kris Allen  
Think Twice - Eve 6  
Year Without Rain - Selena Gomez & The Scene  
You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette**

Chapter 11

PAINTBALLERZ UNITE! (Don't Piss Off Sydney)

* * *

October 13th

Four days after I'd confronted Embry, it was my eighteenth birthday! My mom decided that even with as big of a house as we had, it wasn't big enough for my birthday extravaganza. So what did she do? Rented a paintball field. And when I say paintball field, I mean a field two miles across, complete with half of it emerged within the trees; perfect for hard-core paintballers. Everyone had been required to either wear the camo cargo pants or skirt with a white or black tank top. I'd also added my own stipulation, and had painted everyone in war-paint.

Now we all stood in line - aside from my mom, (Dad had suited up with us) Emily, Sarah, Brady and Kim's parents, Jared's parents and Jake's dad, who were staying in the spectators section that was basically a big, clear plastic barrier that would protect them from the incoming shots - and waited for the start of the game. It was clear who would be paired up before we even chose paint colors. We'd all been paired up into twos and threes. My brothers and dad had become the gray team; for what reason, I could not fathom. Sam and Alicia had paired up because Emily was taking care of the twins in the spectators section, making up the blue team. Then there was Seth and Leah, who made up the green team - Clearwaters are dangerous when together, so they actually pose a threat to my paintball prowess.

Then, of course, the imprints had all paired up; Claire and Quil were the yellow team, Jared and Kim were orange, much to Kim's disappointment, and Paul and I made up the red team; the color of blood, cue evil laugh. Embry and Jake made up the black team - Billy had found this hilarious - meaning that Collin and Brady were stuck with purple, though they'd fought adamantly with Jared for orange, and Kim had almost let them have it, but she broke before Jared could - damn puppy pout - and she was still stuck with orange.

For identification purposes, I'd also bought a bunch of different colored bandannas for each team. Everyone was currently tying theirs onto different parts of their bodies. Paul was helping me tie one half of my bandanna, which I ripped down the center, around my neck, choker style while I busied myself tying it around my hair in a pony-tail. Paul had tied his around his bicep. He finished tying it around my neck, and I turned to him, high-fiving. He picked up our guns and threw one at me, which I caught easily. He glanced over at me with a silly grin as I slipped my eye protectors on - red tinted, of course.

I looked out at everyone else to see how they'd done their bandannas and started laughing. The gray team - a.k.a my dad and brothers - had somehow managed to find a way to tack theirs to their backs like capes and were striking heroic poses.

Leah and Seth had tied theirs onto the right strap of each of their shirts and currently looked to be discussing strategy. Shit. That's not good. The blue team were split - Sam over near the spectators booth, talking to Em though the shatter-proof glass, and Alicia watching and laughing as her son tackled Jake in order to get the double barreled gun. Claire and Kim were set glaring at each other. They looked like twins. They'd both gone for the skirt option over the cargo pants, had both worn white tank tops, their bracelet bearing arms on their hips and hair styled in the same fashion which their respectively colored bandanna.

Claire and Kim were the only ones wearing the skirt though, well, out of the people who were playing, cause the mom's had bought some similar, more conservative ones, because Leah and Alicia had both gone with the cargo pants option, and as the birthday girl, I'd made a completely new option for myself - say hello to my camo short shorts, which I knew Paul loved by the way he looked when he had arrived at the pitch.

The game was set to begin a few moments later. We'd all picked our guns of choice, locked and loaded them and were standing with our groups or partners. My mom took her stand at the announcers board. "Okay, by the end of this game, I expect every last one of you to be covered in other people's paint!" There were a series of whooping noises, yelling and a war-cry on my part. "There are three prizes to be won - cleanest group, which is basically the team that comes back with the least paint all over them, paint champs, which are the ones who come back with the most of their paint on other people, and best team, which we will judge. We'll be watching - on your marks, get set, go!"

Paul grabbed my hand and picked me up, slinging me onto his back and then throwing his gun up to I could catch it. His gun landed in my hands and he took off. Paul and I had chosen our specific guns because we knew this was going to happen. While everyone else was fleeing to get under the cover of the trees, I started shooting from Paul's back, hitting Claire in the hip and Raf in the shoulder. Leah had a similar idea, but was running and shooting at the same time. I shot once at her just before we reached the tree-line, and saw it just barely nick the top of her head, splattering all over her hair. Oh, if that had been any other girl, I would be so screwed. I could see other couples scrambling farther through the treeline, but Paul and I stopped once we couldn't see the open field anymore.

I jumped off of his back, throwing his gun at him like a pro, and he caught it. I opened my chamber and added some extra ammo to replace what I'd lost. "I'm gonna find our checkpoint," I said, closing the chamber of the gun by jerking the gun forward so gravity did the work for me. "See if you can find any other checkpoints, then go for high-ground." And by high-ground, I meant climb a tree and make some aerial shots. I holstered my little paintball gun that I owned personally and grinned up at him, holding the long one loosely in my right hand. He smiled and pulled me in for a kiss. "See you later, babe. Kick some ass for me," I said in a flirty manner before taking off.

Embry, I knew, could be a great strategist - he helped me plan the school bit, after all - but I knew my real competition would be Leah and Seth. They were both good at this kinda thing and Leah would take it seriously like me. But I played paintball with some serious bros back in Texas, and I wouldn't go down easily.

I skidded to a stop, the dead leaves under my feet making a crackling sound. I cursed and got the mirror out of my pocket, leaning against the tree and putting the mirror out so that I could see if anyone was coming. I flashed it three times, covering all my blind spots, and seeing that the coast was clear, put the mirror back in my pocket and took off again, running around trees like my life depended on it.

I must have gone the opposite direction of everyone else because I had yet to shoot at anyone and anyone had yet to shoot at me. But I'd found the blue ammo stash and checkpoint, and filling my little gun with their shots, I fired at the trees, depleting a good portion of their extra ammo. Sabotage! I found myself laughing evilly as I ran from the scene, looking for my team's stash. Someone must have been closer by than I thought because not a second later, when I paused to breathe - laughing evilly and running at the same time will really take it out of you - I heard something scrambling to get closer to my location. I hid myself behind the tree and got out my mirror again. Flashing it, I saw a flash of yellow on black hair, and knew it was Claire. She was also already splattered with paint. Ha ha ha!

I jumped out from behind the tree and nailed her straight in the chest. It winded her and she dropped her gun, allowing me to get away. I also saw that I wasn't the only red paint splatter that decorated her white tank. Good job, Paul, good job. I briefly wondered how he was doing. Based on Claire's shirt, I'd say not bad, but he'd run out of ammo sometime or another.

Ten minutes later, I still hadn't found our stash, though I'd managed to sabotage orange's checkpoint and made it a point to laugh evilly as I left the crime scene. I'd gone as far as I could in that direction, so I turned and started heading back towards where I knew the real fight would be. I hadn't been shot once, but knew that if either of the teams I'd sabotaged found their stashes before the game was over, I'd be on a couple people's lists... I'd also only wasted one shot so I was still pretty good on ammo myself. Plus I had my mini gun for insurance.

Every hundred feet or so, I'd stop and listen, or check around with my mirror. Caution is key. Then, if I was sure I would be safe, I continued on, still on a quest for the red's ammo post. I almost passed out, however, when I heard the chamber of a gun slide closed above me. How the hell had I been so careless? I can't have been the only one to come up with the idea of taking people out, sniper style. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact of a paint ball on my back, but after a second, I heard a loud thump on the ground, like whoever it was had just jumped out of the tree. "I see you're doing well, baby." I sighed in relief and turned to smack Paul on the shoulder. "You scared the hell out of me; I thought I was going to get sniped!" He just laughed. Oh, if he wasn't my boyfriend...

And then I took a good look at him. He was almost as clean as I was, except for two gray shots, one green and one purple. "You know, your brothers aren't bad shots," said Paul, as he pointed to the one on the left side of his chest and the one that had hit him square in the stomach. "While I was fighting them off, Seth came in and got a lucky shot, but then Brady got their, took one shot at me, Seth noticed and they started battling each other so I was able to get away." He gave me a grin. "With a few shots at Brady and Seth, of course."

"I sabotaged Jared and Kim's stash as well as Sam and Alicia's stash."

He nodded, impressed. "Good thing, 'cause I saw Jared shooting at Leah earlier and all those summers he spent hunting with his dad really paid off. Luckily, to balance him out, Kim's never held a gun and can't shoot straight for her life, so after he's jacked her gun and used up all the paint, they won't be a threat." Sounded good to me.

"Alright," I said, gathering my thoughts and going through all our options. "Have you found our stash?" I looked up and got an affirmative nod. "And is it still in good shape?" Another affirmative. "How are you on ammo?"

He shrugged. "Since I refilled, I've only shot a couple times. I'll be good for a while yet, I think. How are you on ammo?" He didn't wait for my response; he simply plucked the big gun from my hand and the small gun from my holster. He opened the chamber and peered inside, and then bounced the small one up and down in his palm. "Have you fired off at all?" he asked, one eyebrow raise in a questioning sort of way. Smug jerk.

"I fired and hit Claire. Other than that, just the two I started with." I'd almost forgotten that I'd gotten Leah and Claire before the game had really started.

He looked me up and down. "Well, at least you're clean." He chuckled as I took another good swipe at his arm. "I'm kidding, Sydney, jeez." He was still laughing and I almost shot him, just for good measure, but decided against it when I heard a scuffling to my side. Instead, I covered his mouth with one hand and motioned for him to be quiet with the other. His reaction was immediate and he leaned down so I could climb onto his back. I could see the gears in his head turning. "Keep her clean, and we'll win the cleanest couple." It was only after I heard it that I realized he was actually muttering it and not just thinking it. For a second, I had myself worried.

I was peaking at the oncoming person from between his shoulder and neck, trying to keep myself from being exposed too much. Embry and Jake appeared and Paul took aim. "Dude, wait!" Embry practically yelled, waving his hands around like a crazy man. "Jake and I come in peace, and to form a truce." He took one look at the two of us. "Going for cleanest couple, I see," he said with a grin. "Well then this works out just perfectly. You two empty out your guns, fill them with our color, and shoot at anyone whose coming around while we stand in front and take any shots." He gestured to himself and Jake's shirts. "We already have no chance at cleanest couple, so why not win Paint Champs?" I looked them over. They were right. They were both covered in paint, especially Jake. And a lot of it was green. My mind went back to the day I first met the pack.

_"Yeah, cause Leah would have beaten Jake and Paul to death if they'd gone with her. You know Jake and Leah have never been the greatest of friends."_ I would bet a lot of things that Leah had been the one to cover Jake in all that green paint. And if I remembered the second part right... _"And her and Paul would fight to the finish..."_ well, I guess a deal was the best way to go.

Embry must have seen the gears in my head turning, because he was looking to me, not Paul. He stepped forward and stuck out a hand. "Do we have an accord?" he asked. I gave an evil grin, took aim, shot and hit him square in the forehead before jumping off Paul's back, and stepping forward to shake his hand.

"We have an accord."

Jake was laughing his ass off while Embry was attempting to look at his forehead. I smiled, having had part of my revenge. I turned back around going to jump back on Paul's back, and he gave me a high-five. I smiled as his hand closed around mine and he pulled me onto his back. "Slick, baby girl, slick." He sounded proud. Yeah, like he had any right to be proud. I'm the one who taught him that sometimes the small victories are the sweetest.

Embry wiped his forehead off and very purposely wiped it on Jake's chest. "Good," Embry said, "then the deal is made and shall not be broken. Come and load your guns with our colors, comrades."

I briefly wondered if Embry knew what that meant but didn't linger on it. After all, Embry was good with strategy, when he wanted to be. Maybe this was his plan the entire time; to team up with Paul and I, for some reason or another. This just happened to work in my favor. Suddenly, all three boys stiffened. "Leah's coming this way." Well, shit. She probably wanted revenge for what I did to her hair.

But I just smiled. "Bring it."

Leah did show herself soon enough, but by then, the boys had flanked me on all sides. Even if they couldn't keep Paul clean, they were going to keep me as clean as possible. I took aim and fired, a black splatter appearing on her left breast, which caused Embry and Jake to laugh as they opened fire on her too. Someone else must have heard the ruckus because Paul was steadfastly ignoring the paint war on Embry and Jake's side and staring at the trees. Before I knew it, Collin and Brady were charging through, purple paint balls flying every which way. I heard a couple make contact with Paul's chest, but the rest flew randomly, two actually hitting Leah on the opposite side of the battle. Leah paused, realizing that a new color had entered the stream. Jake and Embry stopped shooting at her, wondering what was going to happen next.

She crept around the cluster that the four of us had formed and trained her eyes on Collin and Brady. I couldn't fathom what was going through her mind, but as long as it wasn't, 'Kill Sydney,' yeah, I was okay with it. Leah could rival me in the scary department, and believe me, she had more claws to back it up.

Collin and Brady also saw where they'd hit her, and then the look in her eyes. They stopped shooting. Leah lunged. "RUN AWAY!" Collin yelled sharply and both he and Brady turned on heel and ran like they had the hounds of hell after them. It was amazing. I openly laughed and the boys joined me. I also made sure to shoot Collin on the back as he made his escape. Ah, paint ball. How I love you.

The four of us traveled in a group, spreading out every time someone came too close. We blasted the hell out of Kim on her way to find Jared. At one point, I was moved onto Embry's back so Paul could get some high-up shots. He ended up getting my dad and brothers twice apiece. And then I was moved to Jake's back when Embry was chosen to lead the oncoming Seth away from me, since he and Leah had yet to make a single shot at me. I felt rather like a baby koala, but it was pretty fun, so I couldn't care too much.

I was still on Jake's back when I heard the ten minute siren go off. It would have been an excellent cover if it weren't for the fact that Jake could smell, and I saw them coming just before it went off. I leaned in to talk into his ear. "They're coming from your right." He whipped around so fast that I almost flew off his back, but just fast enough so that the paintball that would have hit me landed squarely against his chest. I grinned because I knew there couldn't be too many more of those coming. I mean, I'd sabotaged the blue teams extra paint balls. Alicia and Sam came into view, Alicia pointing her gun very purposefully at Jake's shoulder. I hurried to make myself scarce as I could on his back, hanging off so that as little of me was exposed as possible.

"You've teamed up," Sam noticed, clearly amused. "I knew Embry would be smart enough to secure his own safety. After all, it's not wise to piss of Sydney." I grinned. Damn right that wasn't wise. "And I see you've all taken quite the effort to keep little Ms. Rambo safe." Ha ha, funny Sam. I gently nudged Jake's arm out of the way and positioned my paint ball gun so that it pointed at Sam. I didn't think he saw. I grinned again, evilly, and shot, hitting him straight in the chest. It surprised him into releasing his gun, but Alicia was quick to strike back.

Jake took every hit. "Run, Syd. Sam can't get you and still make it on time to the starters point." I grinned because Sam was still looking for the gun that had gotten hung up on a tree above him. Jake backed up to a tree so that I could run without getting hit. And I did run. I heard others running too.

Someone came up directly behind me, took one arm and all but threw me into the air. I screamed until I landed, arms latched rather tightly around someone's neck. "Would you like a ride?" That was the smug voice of Embry. I glared at him, leaned down and bit his shoulder. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Embry exclaimed, turning his head to look at me with that stupid grin of his. Insert new glare here. "Save that for Paul. I hear he likes it... rough."

You know those cartoons where when they here something shocking, their jaws drop clear to the floor and their eyes pop out of their skull? Well, I'm pretty sure that my face resembled theirs, except mine was as red as a fire-truck too. And not completely with embarrassment either. I was dying to ask one question; 'Who the hell told you that, where does she live and is she taller than me?' Okay, maybe that constitutes as three questions, but believe me, the way I ask it, it'll sound like one. But instead of letting my brief moment of jealousy get to me, I just gave Embry a swipe across the head - instant relief of anger. And the best part about it is that it doesn't hurt him, so he can't complain. He usually laughs anyway.

We burst out of the tree-line and I saw that we were the first ones out. "EMBRY! Drop me here." He skidded to a stop and let me down, utterly confused. I walked until I found a bit of tall grass and laid down on my stomach, my paintball gun trained on the tree-line. Embry saw what I was doing and joined me.

They didn't keep us waiting long. The first ones out were Jared and Kim, Jared pulling Kim along. Embry and I shot at them; they didn't even seem to care. I noticed that neither of them had guns anymore and that they were both covered in all sorts of paint, Kim more so than Jared. Kim had also lost her orange tinted eye protectors somewhere and was squeezing her eyes shut. That had to suck. Close behind them were Collin and Brady, both sporting several spots of their own paint on their shirts, as well as that of everyone else, and they were being chased by none other than Leah. I almost laughed, but settled for shooting at the three of them, hitting my mark almost every time, but hey, no one's a perfect shot.

Now, up until this point, everyone had been coming in somewhat down field, so they weren't able to see us shooting at them, but when I looked back to the front, someone was coming right for us. They were a a yard away, a foot away, in the air to jump over us; I positioned my gun, shut my eyes, hoping whoever it was wouldn't land on me, and shot. A nanosecond later, I heard an exclamation of pain and a loud thump as whoever it was landed on the ground heavily.

I opened one eye to look at whoever I had shot. What I saw nearly made me pee my pants. Quil was crumpled on the ground, whimpering, holding his manly area in agony. I looked at my gun, satisfied. I'd have to remember that next time Embry ticked me off. I gave Embry an evil grin, and he definitely understood my meaning as he paled considerably and squirmed uncomfortably, looking on at Quil in pity.

"Embry, why are you two on the ground?" That was the frustrated voice of Paul as I was yet again, swooped up into the air. I get it; I was injured, but it was my head, not my legs. I can walk! I didn't voice this, though. Just sighed as he carried me bridal style and drummed my fingers against his arm in a bored fashion.

The three of us made it to the starters point where we had to hand in our guns and wait for everyone else. Jake joined us soon enough, thoroughly blasted with blue, but looking rather satisfied. I saw why when Sam and Alicia walked their way back to the starters point, completely covered in black paint. Not just them either - Claire too, who had come out of the forest, looking like she'd been through hell.

Once everyone made it back and all guns were handed in, it was time to announce the winners.

My mom took center. "Alright, that was a very interesting match of paintball," she said, eying some people more than others. I put on an angelic face and mimed a halo. She just rolled her eyes. "I think it's clear who won the Paint Free portion of this round as Sydney was the only player in the game to come back utterly paint free. How she managed that, we've decided we don't want to know." This caused a round of chuckling and my own pout. "Don't piss Sydney off, right Quil?" This set off even more laughter. Is this a birthday girl roast? "Therefor, Sydney, Paul, you win the 'No Paint Zone' medals." She picked up two medals out of a box and threw them to us.

"And then, of course, the less obvious Paint Champs section winners. This was a hard one because many of you shot a really good game, but looking at you now, I guess only one team had a great strategy to win this part." She picked up two medals. "Jake, Embry, employing Sydney and Paul to help you was a great idea, especially seeing the amount of red paint all over my husband and Seth." She threw them the medals and I heard Leah cursing. "You two win the 'Termipainter' medals." Worst pun ever, Mom, worst pun ever.

She picked up the last medals and said, "And by unanimous vote, the best team was made up by my sons, Raf and Leo, and my husband, Jed - sorry honey, you don't get a medal." He just shrugged as Raf and Leo ran up to hug my mom and get their own medals. My mom gave each of them a medal and hugged them back.

We all flooded into the spectators booth, miraculously fitting, someway or another, and started eating. At some point, Billy started doing an Elvis impersonation for some reason, I couldn't tell you exactly why, but he ended up getting a piece of pizza flung in his face, courtesy of his own son. My mom had had to diffuse an oncoming food-fight with that one, Emily helping by hitting someone - cough cough, Embry, cough cough - over the head with a large metal spoon. Thank Godfrey for Em and her cooking supplies of justice, otherwise we'd never be able to keep this pack of boys under control.

Sometime later, my mom started throwing - literally - hot pink eye protectors at the girls. The guys all looked extremely confused. I caught my pair expertly and smiled at my mom. She then dug back in her bag for the rest of the 'stuff.' All the girls got up from where they were sitting and stood in the corner of the spectators booth. Lets just say my mom went really all out for my eighteenth birthday. My mom came over with the bag and started passing out the little crop jackets, also bright pink in color. Emily joined us, grabbing her own jacket and also fishing out her hot pink army hat. Some of the guys were standing, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I shrugged on my own bright pink crop jacket. My mom, Kim and Claire had come up with the idea, but I wasn't going to object just because everything they chose was pink.

The back of my jacket said 'LeHaye' in big, bold black letters and they handed me a rhinestone necklace that said 'Captain,' which is what I was referred to occasionally when I came up with a devious plan or whenever someone was trying to employ me to help get back at someone else. It was a nickname and a form of flattery all in one.

Looking around, other names on the jackets flashed. Leah turned around and 'Clearwater' was plastered across her back, and her necklace, interestingly enough, said 'Head Bitch.' How she got away with that, I will never know. Kim was busy trying to right her jacket which read 'Knight.' Her necklace just said 'Kimmy.' Claire was strutting, showing off her jacket like a model, flashing the large 'Leighton' around for all it was worth and Emily stared adoringly at the 'Uley' on the back of her jacket. For a second, I imagined my own back saying Walker instead of LeHaye.

That daydream was interrupted by Embry yelling indignantly as Emily through his full length jacket at his face. "Sydney," he said, slightly irritated, holding up his brown hoodie and showing me the 'Call' splayed across the back, "care to explain?"

I smiled evilly. "My thank you for attending my birthday party as well as your team colors. Next round is boys versus girls."

"But we out-number you!" Jake exclaimed, laughing, and the others joined in, but some of the laughs were more nervous than others. I even saw Jared pulling nervously at his collar. Ah, so he must be catching on to our scheme. Not that it matters. Even if he has, its not like him knowing about it will deter us any. We've been planning this for two days and subtly practicing in that time too.

Leah and I look over at each other, exchanging a cool, high-five/secret handshake that we've been developing for the past month or so. Perfect time to use it I think. Kim sees this and gives a mocking little laugh. "Doesn't matter. Even without Alicia, we can still kick your ass." My mom gave her a stern look. "Sorry, Missy. We can still kick your butt."

"Oh," Claire said, remembering something, "you guys also lose Leo, Raf and Jed. Even it out a little more." She shrugged, smiling. The real reason was to get it down to pack members and imprints only. The nine boys lined up nervously, all taking their jackets and putting them on and getting their guns. Nine wolves against four imprints and another wolf. This was almost too easy. The only two not looking even the slightest bit worried were Paul and Embry. I could remedy that - easy.

Embry smirked. "Don't hurt yourself, sweetheart," he mocked.

I gave him a sweet smile. "Can I hurt you instead?"

His grin dropped and he pointed his gun at me, miming shooting. "Bring it, LeHaye." Oh, so he was challenging me now? He seems to have forgotten the revenge against him that I owe myself. I just cock a smirk

"Oh, it's brought, Call."

-Forever His-

This time, they didn't blare a horn and have us run into the brush like an angry mob. Know what my my did? Had everyone blind folded and brought into the forest by someone else. Needless to say, that took a bit of time, getting everyone situated. But now all the girls had found each other again and we were following Leah. We'd already predetermined that the boys would split up into small groups to look for us and we were currently positioning ourselves so as to intercept them.

"Okay," Leah said, throwing her gun at me, which I caught easily. "My nose works a little - well, a lot - better when I'm a wolf. Sydney, care to do the translations?" I grinned by way of answer. She grinned back and ran behind a tree, coming out a moment later, a wolf. She was a very pretty wolf. Mostly a dark mocha color with a few places that were sandy in color, such as her paws. She gave what seemed to be a wolf grin and I heard Claire and Kim giggle a bit. I just rolled my eyes as I heard Leah take in a breath, then a few smaller ones. "Three are close, two are moderately going the right way and four of them went in the wrong direction. Closest to us now is... Sam. Brady is about twenty feet off from him, but he should be easy enough to take care of."

I relayed this info to the other girls and then turned to Emily. "You're up. Show these girls how its done, mama wolf."

She smiled, handing her gun over to Claire and all but skipping to where I was directing her. There was a small gap between trees and she found a root and sat down, situating herself so that it looked like she had tripped over it. For the effect, she let an extremely pained look cross over her face and held onto her ankle.

Sam didn't fail. He appeared at the tree-line within moments of Emily getting into character. She whimpered when he came into view. Sam _dropped his gun. Again! _I couldn't believe my luck and sent Kim to grab it. She did so gladly, happy she wouldn't have to shoot. Sam, however, wasn't paying any attention to anything but his wife who was on the dirty forest floor, all but crying. He approached her and I could see Kim's tall lean figure darting through the trees, toward where the gun laid on the ground. "Em, what happened, are you okay?"

He leaned down and helped her up. She used him as a crutch and leaned against his side, her apparently twisted ankle held in the air at an awkward angle. "I ran into Brady." My Godfrey, this lady's a genius. "He pushed me, saying he wanted to get back at Leah and I was in his way, and my foot caught the root and I fell and twisted it."

I nearly yelled in triumph when, simultaneously, the anger registered on Sam's face and Kim picked up his gun. Sam walked Emily over to a fallen log and set her down gently. But what happened next nearly made me pass out. Just as Sam turned around, Brady appeared out of virtually nowhere. "Alright, Sam! You got her. I'm going to go for Leah myself - get a little revenge for earlier." He mimed shooting. Leah and I snorted simultaneously. We both knew if he ran into her, he'd be high tailing it the other way, not shooting. Boys and their egos.

Sam was trying to calm himself, but Brady had just dug himself a six foot hole. Rule number one in the pack: Never hurt another member's imprint, and though Brady hadn't actually hurt Emily... well, Sam didn't know that.

Sam was shaking - badly. I'd never even seen Sam somewhat angry and now he was loosing it. He'd always been Mr. Composed and though I'd seen imprinting in action before, what with all the lovey-dovey couples around me most of the time, I'd never seen how a wolf was affected when his imprint was hurt. It was new. It was exciting. It was somewhat frightening, to be honest. I could see Sam trying to calm himself down, but I don't think it worked. One second, Sam was standing in front of Emily, trying to keep his head, and the next, he was across the clearing, ramming into Brady. Brady didn't have a chance to react. He was sent back in the air, his gun knocked from his hand. It seemed to happen in slow motion after that. Brady, still airborne, sailed through the air and cracked his skull against a tree. It made a horrible sound as the wood splintered from the impact and he fell to the ground, knocked out.

I was proud when I saw Kim going for Brady's gun which had flown back into the trees when it had been knocked from his hand. I turned to Claire who had been quiet up until this point. Her eyes were the size of saucers, watching Sam as he stood over Brady's unconscious form. I snapped in front of her face to grab her attention and her brown eyes immediately pulled to mine. "Do you have the stuff?" I asked and she nodded, mutely digging into her bright pink back pack and handing me what I wanted.

Sam was distracted and didn't see or hear me enter the clearing. I looked at Em and she nodded. I grinned evilly, coming up behind Sam and readying myself. I leaped up, bringing the pink bandanna over his head to wrap around his neck and landing again, bringing Sam with me so that he had to lean back in what seemed a most painful manner. I winced at the sound he made as he pulled at the pink material constricting around his throat. "Sam," I said in a sing-song voice, "you don't want to hurt me, do you?" He stopped resisting immediately. "That's right. Paul wouldn't like that. So be a good little wolf and relax while your wife ties you up." If he wasn't a wolf, that wouldn't have worked, but since he was, I could be a little rougher than usual, bordering on domestic violence in some places.

Emily came forward, grabbing some rope and duck tape from Claire and started binding her husband's hands and feet. A moment later, Sam sat in front of us, next to an unconscious Brady, who we'd also tied up for precautionary purposes. Both were thoroughly shot with pink. Sam was looking at the five of us like he'd never seen us before. Claire held up a camera. "Say I forfeit!" And snapped a picture.

Sam rolled his eyes. "I forfeit."

I smiled. "Good," I said, pulling a piece of pink duck tape out and tearing it with my teeth. I leaned down and stuck it securely on Sam's mouth. He quirked an eyebrow at me, as if to say, 'Really, Syd, duck tape?' "Then I won't have to have Leah break you into submission." I winked at him as his eyes widened comically. "It wouldn't have been fun for you."

Sam looked over at Emily. "Sorry, honey," she said, shrugging and grinning, "but I can't piss off Sydney." That seemed to be the mantra for today, though I could see why Emily said it. She knew my plan for Embry if he didn't cooperate when we caught him. I smiled and shrugged. No one was really scared of me - just my anger. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. "Love you. See you later."

The five of us started walking off. "We'll come back for you, Sam. And maybe we'll untie you. Depends on what Emily wants." I wink at him and he rolls his eyes in response.

In the next half hour, we disposed of Collin, Jake, Quil and Seth who didn't go down without a fight, explaining the paint splatters on my leg and on Claire and Kim's shirts. We also lost Emily when we had to scatter due to an attack by Jake and Quil, and though no shots made contact with the four of us who remained, I couldn't speak for Emily. We'd also taken extra precaution when incapacitating Jake and Quil because of their little sneak attack. Three of us had to pile on Jake to stop him.

We were all currently waiting for Embry who was coming this way, according to Leah's nose. Leah had also accidentally shredded her shirt earlier and she was now wearing her cargo pants and a crop jacket that barely hid her breasts from view. Needless to say, she wasn't happy about that. Leah was all about the conservative. Currently, she was lying on her stomach opposite from me, holding a rope. The reason I was on the ground with her? Claire and Kim didn't want to get dirty. Go figure. They're already covered in paint. I'm the only one here who can get any dirtier.

Embry came into view and Leah and I pulled, just as he reached our rope. But it's Embry so he didn't just fall. No, he sprawled and then tumbled down the little slope a couple feet away. He grunted as he made contact with the ground. Leah and I jumped up, running over to him. I immediately straddled him, sitting on his chest and Leah grabbed his gun. Embry opened his eyes and said, "Why Sydney, what would Paul think of this?"

I rolled my eyes and gave him an unamused look. "I have Leah positioned to break your nose with your own gun," the teasing look immediately slipped from his features. "So I suggest you just shut up and listen to the deal I'm going to make you." He nodded slowly. I smiled at him. "Smart boy." I grabbed the small gun from my mini holster and held it up for him to see. "See this?" I asked. He nodded again. "It's unloaded. There are only two people we haven't gotten yet. You want to take a guess at who?"

"I'm guessing Paul, since I just saw him and... Quil?"

"Close," I said, grinning. "Very close. No, actually, we got Quil and Jake when they sprung a surprise attack on us. The other person we've yet to... immobilize is Jared. So what you're going to do is stage a threat to Kim - act malevolent - and we're going to attack Jared from behind while he's distracted." I heard Leah cock her gun and aim it at his face. "No funny business or Leah will kick your ass to the moon. Got it?"

He nods and I offer him the gun, which he takes. I get off of him and he stands up. "You know Syd, you're a lot scarier now that you know the secret. You don't worry about not hurting us anymore."

I shrug. "Mental scarring is good enough for me."

He mutters something about demented short people and gets into position. "Oh, by the way, Leah. Nice boobs. That little crop jacket provides a very nice view of them when one's on the ground." I see her eyes get big and she starts stomping towards him. He doesn't even look slightly deterred. "Remember, Leah. You need me. Jared's onto you guys. Without me, he'll be impossible to get without some very heavy fire on all of you." She stops dead in her tracks but gives Embry a death glare that I wouldn't doubt actually burnt a bit.

Claire, Leah and I all hide from view as Kim stands, holding her gun loosely at her side, Embry pointing my small one at her. Leah whisper yells, "He's coming!" and the act begins. Kim's set trying to figure out how the gun works and Embry starts talking about how Jared wants to win just as much as he does and that being shot doesn't hurt as much as she thinks it will. Jared comes into view, giving Embry an odd look.

"Um, dude. She can't shoot." Well, that didn't go how I wanted it to. "It's wrong to attack a defenseless lady." Oh, there's the part where he defends his girl. "Go shoot Sydney or Leah or something." Leah and I look at each other, silently communicating. Screw my plan.

Leah and I jumped out of the brush, landing solidly on Jared and knocking him to the ground. Leah rips the gun from his grip and brings his hands behind him where I make quick work of them, tying them tightly, then tying his feet together. He's yelling into the ground, probably eating a bit of muddy dirt too, and when Leah flips him, I'm sure to duck tape his mouth quickly. I stand up, Leah and I still glaring down at him. Claire picks up the gun Leah discarded and empties it, rendering it useless.

Jared's trying to yell at us through the tape but its coming out all garbled and muffled. Leah and I smirk at him. Kim comes over and sits on his chest, much like I'd done to Embry earlier. Jared gives her a look. "Sorry, baby. You ran your mouth in front of the wrong people. Lucky for you, we're almost done. The only person left is Paul."

"Someone say my name?"

I looked up quickly to see Paul, staring at the scene in front of them. And then he starts laughing. "I... assume this was... your... plan, Sydney," he managed between his chuckles before breaking out into even more laughter. I smiled, proud of myself. Paul doesn't have a gun, for some reason, but I decide not to question it. He smiles and holds his arms out for me, and I shrug, happy to comply. "Short, evil genius, you will be the end of me."

Embry rolls his eyes, crossing his arms across his chest. "She'll be the end of the world." He looks around. "Dude, what happened to your gun?"

"Emily stole it," he said, shrugging, "said she needed it to protect herself and find Sydney. I think my gun was the anti-Sydney tracker, or something, since I couldn't find you. I decided not to fight and handed it over. She shot me twice and that was the end of it." That's... kinda odd. But whatever. I snuggled closer into Paul's chest. "Guess that means the girls won."

Yep, that pretty much sums up life.

"Almost," I said evilly, grabbing a gun from Kim. She handed it over, questioning my motives silently. I grin evilly at Embry and aim.

"Whoa, whoa, Sydney! Can we talk about this?" His eyes are wide and he looks scared, but he's not making any move away from me. I wonder why that is. He has his hands up. "Please, don't shoot me sissy." He gives me a puppy dog pout. "You wouldn't shoot your own brother, would you? Your best amigo? Your partner in crime?" It's really too bad he wasn't my imprint - he might have had a fighting chance then.

"Let me see," I said, pausing to look thoughtful. "NO!" And I shot.

Embry fell to the floor, grasping his many area that was covered in pink paint. I handed the fun back to Kim, triumphant. "Now we're done."

-Forever His-

We were back at my house now, eating cake and opening presents, and I'll be damned if not everyone there got me a gift, including parents. My Godfrey, I was going to be rich by the end of the night since the parents decided money would be the most appropriate thing to give an eighteen year old girl. My parents gave me a giant art kit. And now, I was just starting on the pack's gifts.

I decided opening the girl's gifts first would be safest. I made a grab for the one with multicolored 'Happy Birthdays' written all over that said from Kim on the card. I opened it to see a long, black piece of material that, when pulled out, was a knee-length, cotton, curve hugging, off the shoulder dress. It was gorgeous. Kim saw my face and grinned. "You have to open Jared's next. They go together." Okay, so at least Jared's wasn't going to kill me. I grabbed his next and pulled out a pair of black, strappy heels and a little silk black clutch purse. "Perfect for when Claire and I start bringing you to this club in Seattle - it's fantastic." I'm pretty sure the smile I forced was less than enthusiastic.

Claire shoved her present at me before I had a chance to even look up from Kim's. She was grinning brightly. "Open ours next!"

I giggled at her eagerness and tore off the red wrapping paper, taking the lid off the box and peeking inside. She and Quil, though I strongly suspected she picked it out and he paid for it, had gotten me two pairs of dark wash jeans, three lacy camisoles, a casual sweater dress and a hoodie with roses wrapping around it, looking like ivy on an old wall. "I'm just taking a guess here, but I think you guys think I don't have enough dresses." I quirk an eyebrow at them and they don innocent faces. I smiled, shake my head and put it back in the box so I don't lose it.

The next gift handed to me is from Leah. It's a small little jewelry box and when I open it, its four little sets of studs in green, dark blue, red and clear. I grin again. I haven't been able to wear my earrings in so long. I doubt these guys even knew I had my ears pieced until now, judging by the looks on their faces as I poke the green ones in. Their eyes widen further as I also take out the blue pair and put them in my second hole. I swore Kim's eyes almost popped out of her skull when I put the clear ones in too, and then when I put the fourth pair through my cartilage, I thought Claire was going to pass out. I turned to Leah. "Thanks. How do they look on me."

She's obviously trying not to laugh and is failing miserably. "Fabulous, but I think you might still be missing a pair... or two." Or three, I thought, laughing myself. She tossed me another box or four, this time in onyx, light blue, gray and purple. I put the onyx ones in above the clear ones, followed by the light blue and then by the purple, which was underneath the red.

"I have my ears pierced seven times up," I explain and the looks on Kim and Claire's faces are enough to make me give them a sheepish look.

Embry gives me a mischievous look and wriggles his eyebrows at me. "Any... other piercings we should know about?"

"Want me to shoot you again?"

Embry fell silent, looking down at the table like it was the single most interesting thing in the room. I grin and take the present that Emily offers me. Its wrapped in simple blue paper and a white ribbon. I ripped it off and there was a picture of me and Paul on the beach. I don't remember him lifting me off the ground, but it seems that he had. And lucky me, the picture was taken from an angle where you couldn't see my gash or the bruising on my neck. I briefly wondered how she had taken this without my knowing, but decided I didn't care. Also, tucked in the corner of the frame was a Starbucks gift card. I love my life!

I jumped up and gave Emily a hug, nearly squishing Nick. He made a little gurgling sound and I leaned down to give him a kiss on the forehead, then did a dorky happy dance. I pointed to Paul. "You, me, the pack and this gift card, next Saturday. You'll see what real coffee's all about." Because, of course, La Push and Forks are the only places in the country without a Starbucks.

Everyone laughed. "I think she likes it," someone said as I hugged the gift card to my chest while the picture was passed around. The girls all awed over it, though they had seen it in person. I stuck my tongue out and took my picture back, putting it in the box with Claire's stuff.

"Mine next!" Embry exclaimed, all but throwing his package at me. The package was midsized, and on the front was a rather well drawn mudkip from the Pokemon series. Underneath it was written, 'So I hear you like mudkips.' I laughed and tore off the paper. Embry's face fell in half at the sight of his mudkip's tail being torn off, but he got over it quickly, trying to gauge my reaction, I suppose. He watched me as I painfully slowly opened the box. Inside was the full first season of the original Pokemon series. Lifting that out, there was also a pad of paper. "So I hear you like drawing," Embry joked and I rolled my eyes, lifting the pad of paper. Underneath that was a little booklet with the title Embry's coupons. I didn't know whether to be scared or not.

Opening the booklet, the first one said, 'Good for one Embry hug.' I smiled and shook my head, flipping the page. There were five Embry hug coupons, two coupons that offered to have him cook me a meal, one bad date escape coupon - as if I'd need that - four to have him draw something for me and three for a massage. I laughed, ripping out the first page of the coupon book and hugged him, handing him the slip of paper too. "Thank you, Embry."

He handed the slip back to me. "That one was on the house."

I grinned, taking the slip back and putting it in my pocket before picking up another gift from the pile. I was about to open it when it was snatched from my hands. By Paul. I gave him a halfhearted glare. "It's mine. I want you to open it last." He gave me a sheepish smile and I shrugged, grabbing a different gift.

Collin and Brady had pitched in with each other and gotten me a good easel and some sketch pads and pens. Jake promised me two free maintenance checks on my car - on top of the fix he was already doing from the incident with Cade. And Seth... well, Seth's gift confused me. He had gotten me a scrap book - no doubt Sue's idea - but the thing was, it was already filled with photos of me and the pack; photos I don't remember ever having taken. There were pictures of the girls and I and me when Mick and Nick had been born. There was also a picture of me the day after I'd been attacked, looking terrible. There were all sorts of pictures and all of them were really good. I just didn't remember having taking any of them.

After I finished looking through the scrap book, Paul handed me his and a rose. I don't know where he pulled the rose from, but he had managed it somehow. The box he gave me was a slightly larger than average jewelry box in blue satin. I opened it and inside was a necklace and a matching bracelet. The bracelet was a charm bracelet that had something on it for everyone in the pack with their names engraved on the back in tiny letters so I would be sure to know who it was supposed to represent. The necklace was on a thin, silver chain and on it was a single, silver wolf. I gasped. Paul grinned. "Do you like it?"

"Like it?" I asked, incredulous. "I love it! Help me put it on?" He smiled and I turned around. The cool silver landed around my neck and I heard it clasp behind me.

I turned around. "Now you look perfect," he said.

"Just like my birthday, huh?" I asked with a silly grin.

He just laughed and kissed me. Perfect birthday indeed.

* * *

**A/N: Longest chapter ever! I'm just sorry it was a filler.**

**This chapter was originally supposed to be the pack's holidays, but then I remembered two very important characters had birthdays in the midst of this! So, as a result, the Holidays have been pushed back a chapter. The chapter after next will actually relate to the plot line, however.**

**I had hoped to get this in by Christmas, but untimely as always, it was late. So I apologize. And I would also like to say that I will not be able to update till the 29th, at least.**

**Embry: Yeah, cause she's leaving us out in the cold.  
Me: No, because I have musical practices and homework!  
Paul: He's right, Jas. You are kinda hanging us out to dry.  
Me: No, Paul! Not you too! I love you guys, but I'm sorry, school's more important.  
Embry: Oh, I see how it is. You love your precious school more than us.  
Paul: Actually, she hates school.  
Me: Thank you Paul.  
Paul: But she's still ditching us for it.  
Me: Awwww D: Everyone's against the shorty.  
Paul: Review!  
Embry: Hey, that was my line!**

**Actually, Embry, that was my line. So, review! Tell me what you think. Did you like it, did you hate it? Should musical practice kill me to prevent me spreading my poison to the world. Sometimes, I think it should. Favorite scene? Favorite line? Was anyone else glad to have Embry back in this chapter?**

**Embry: I WAS!  
Me: Of course you were.  
Embry: Review for my glorious return.  
Paul: No, review for my romantic ways.  
Me: No, review for me! Actually, you know what? REVIEW FOR ALL THREE!  
Embry: Oh, great she's rhyming again.  
Me: Shut your freaking mouth, Embry Call!**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Hey, everybody! Loves and hugs. I'm so sorry you had to wait for this chapter, but hopefully, you love it anyhow. I also decided to add a part of real plot-line to this chapter. Yay! :D**

**Also, I realize that it's been almost a year since I posted - ten months, actually, and I apologize profusely for the long wait.**

**I Invoke the Muse!**

**Animal - Neon Trees  
Faceless - Red  
F*ckin' Perfect - P!nk  
Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri  
Keep the Streets Empty for Me - Fever Ray  
Those Nights - Skillet  
Tonight (I'm Lovin' You) - Enrique Iglesias**

Chapter 12

Pack of Holidays

* * *

Halloween with the pack is an... interesting affair. Paul insisted we all hang at his bachelor pad, which I'd never been to before, despite the fact that I'm his girlfriend. I think it was because of the people who were going missing left and right a couple towns over these days - he felt more confident he could protect me on his own territory or something like that. But the good news is, I haven't heard from Cade since that night. Though, now I'm all paranoid and am convinced I keep seeing him looking through the windows of my house - when its really just a cat - or whenever I'm looking at myself in a mirror that he's standing behind me, staring. I think Cade proved that whenever he gets close to me, he's not going to just stare.

Despite all the paranoia about my undead, ex-boyfriend, I haven't had a single nightmare like I did the night I was knocked out. They've actually all involved Paul and me. Well, there was the one about the rubber chicken, but I blame Embry for that bit of mental scarring.

Paul, aside from his weird mandate that we host this get-together at his house, had also insisted that all couples wear matching costumes. Paul and I were also pretty certain that our costume would get a laugh out of the other pack members. I was actually at Emily's right at this moment, having the other girls do my hair and make-up, though I refused to let them see my outfit, no matter what methods of torture they tried. Kim had also suddenly decided that I needed to have my eyebrows plucked.

Now that I had been groomed to perfection - and plucked, nearly to tears - I was helping Emily get Nick and Mick into their first costume. I was handling Mick's and Emily was trying to get Nick to keep his blue, wig/hat thing on his head. If you haven't guessed it, Em's dressing them as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from _Cat in the Hat_ and they look beyond adorable. Nick is smiling as big as he can, swiping his hat off every couple seconds and squealing in delight and Mick is smiling at me while I continue buttoning up her red onesy. I hold Mick up. "She's been thingified." And Emily laughs.

"She's gorgeous," says Sam, walking through the room like its no one's business and kisses Em on the cheek and then comes over to kiss Mick on the cheek. "Just like her mother and just like her auntie Sydney." He kisses my cheek for emphasis and then, before I can jump away, he's blown a raspberry on my face, grabbed his daughter and stepped back. I exclaim in disgust and wipe my face off. I'm still scrubbing at my face with my sleeve when the door opens again and Jared and Quil walk through.

Claire looks at her boyfriend with a harsh glare - a hard thing to do when you're dressed as Alice from Alice and Wonderland - and says, "And who said you could come in?"

Ooh, someone's in the dog house. That's my first thought when Quil looks to the ground in shame and I realized in shock that they're not wearing matching costumes. Well, they are, but Quil is so not the Mad Hatter. Rather, I think he's McTwisp, the white rabbit in a waistcoat, and I'm pretty sure that there is no love interest there. But if you've seen Tim Burton's Alice, well, you know there is between her and the Hatter. Jared pushes by him, not in the sympathetic mood I suppose. He's obviously only got eyes for Kim, whose decked out head to toe in skin-tight leather. They're a Nascar couple. That's sort of gag worthy.

But I have to say, the weirdest costume in this place is Sam and Emily's matching Conrad and Sally, the kids from the Cat in the Hat. It's not pretty and lets just say Em can not pull off blond. I turn away to look at the screen of my new phone - I made Kim chip in - and pick up my bag. My car's still out of commission so I've been having Paul play chauffeur, with some extra tips from a frequent passenger. They're the kind of tips that when Embry tried to pay him off, he got a solid blow to his jaw. Would he have actually kissed Paul? I don't know, and I'm really glad Paul didn't let me find out. I mean, it's Embry. As much as I love by big brother, he's kind of strange and I wouldn't put kissing another guy in way of payment past him.

"Alright, peeps," I said, trying not to laugh at my own phraseology, "I'll see you at the party. Prepare to be dazzled." I held up my hands in spirit fingers and then backed out of the room before turning and running out to the car - almost falling, but not - and jumping in next to my boyfriend. Boyfriend! You cannot even imagine how much I love saying that. "What's up, sexy?" I asked, leaning in to kiss him after I'd snapped my seat belt into place and thrown by bag in the back seat.

"Why, Sydney, what would Paul think?"

That was definitely _not _Paul's voice.

My eyes shot open a couple inches away from Embry's face. _Embry. _Not Paul, but _Embry._ Oh, hell, I'm going to kill him. Despite my thoughts, however, I made no move to actually physically harm him. Instead, I leaned back in the passenger seat and looked at him. "Embry," I said, rather calmly, "where the _fuck _is Paul?"

Embry blinked. "Paul's getting ready for the party," he said, in matter-of-fact way. He shifted gears and we rolled out of Emily's drive. "He sent me to get you because it was either me or Collin and Paul doesn't trust Collin with his truck as far as he can throw him. Only thing Collin's ever driven are ATVs and crap mobiles like Seth's. Never driven anything like the black beauty here." Here, Embry pets the steering wheel affectionately. "Sarah wouldn't let him when he was in driving school since when he tried with his dad's, she'd had to get a replacement fence. Now no one trusts him with a truck enough to let him try again." Somehow, I could see why.

"Alright," I said, glad he hadn't sent Collin anyway - this was my brother, after all; my partner in crime - and punching the newly fixed radio, "let's go." And I don't know why, but at that moment, Sweet Home Alabama came on. We don't live anywhere near Alabama. What the hell? But it had a nice beat and I guess it was better than if some classical shit had suddenly come on.

I now know why Embry is trusted with Black Beauty. It's because he fills her up with gas, unlike the other cheapskates in the pack who would just ride her to the last drop. It wasn't because Embry was some great driver - not to say he was horrible, but he definitely wasn't the best - but because he actually cared for Paul's car just like Paul would.

I'd also like to point out here that I'd never been to Paul's house before. Like, ever. Before or after we started dating. So I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I mean, sure, Paul's had two jobs since the end of his high school years. His uncle had owned the old mechanics shop that Paul and some of the other boys worked in, and when he'd retired to California, he'd left the property to Paul. Not to mention, Paul was also in the furniture making industry, and said, since it was a small business that it would probably belong to him someday too. But honestly, he's in his early twenties - what kind of guy has a great pad in his early twenties? Unless, of course, he's living with his mom. Or is a trust fund baby, which, I'm sure, Paul is not. He's just a guy with hard working relatives who've decided to be generous towards him.

Embry pulled up in front of a house not much different the Sam and Emily's. It was painted a rich mahogany color and the off-white trim and gutters stood out. There was a garage off to the side and Paul's motorcycle - which he refused to let me ride on, saying that with my luck, I'd bring us down on the road and he didn't have a helmet for me - was sitting on one side, gleaming in the dim sunlight. He let me out before maneuvering black beauty into her spot next to devil's pride - Paul had a thing about naming his vehicles.

I stood on the sidewalk awkwardly, holding my duffel to my chest. Embry hopped out of the car with a laugh, locking it behind him. "You can go in, you know," he half mocked, "the guy is your boyfriend."

Nonetheless, I waited for Embry... and then waited for him to go first. He gave an exasperated sigh and walked up the pathway, up the stairs to the porch - which was wide enough for a charming little umbrella table and seemed to wrap around all the way to the back - and through the front door. Without knocking. I should have known he wouldn't knock. It was a pack thing. You don't knock on a fellow pack member's door; you barge in and hope you haven't caught them at a bad time. And if you have caught them at a bad time... well, I think that's worth extra points, or something, since it happens so often. I remember this one time that Paul, Embry and Jake (dragging me with them, of course) had barged into Sam and Emily's house and... Well, naughty stuff was occurring. Ahem.

Luckily, Paul was expecting party guests so it wasn't a bad time kind of thing. The entrance way was a cream color and the floor was a deep brown. It was small; just barely big enough for Embry and I to fit through side-by-side. There was also a small table, obviously for keys and things of that nature. Paul's gigantic key ring was already on top of the table, soon joined by his second set of keys, which he had lent to Embry in order to come get me, I suppose.

"Hey, baby," Paul's voice called from the next room. I followed it, advancing slowly.

Embry had no such insecurities about going into unfamiliar territory, and pushed past me into the living room. But did he sit down on the couch and turn on the TV like any other pack member would have done? No. Did he go into the kitchen and start digging into the snacks before everyone else even got there? No. He approached Paul who was looking through a rack of CDs - a nice sized collection of them too - and wrapped his arms around Paul's waist and said, "Hello, Sugarplum."

Paul paused mid-motion. "Embry Landon Call, if you do not get off me in the next two seconds, I swear, not even Sydney will be able to stop me from killing you." Embry instantly released his hold on Paul's waist. "Now, as I was saying, to my _girlfriend_," he added for Embry's benefit, "hey baby." He grinned at me, and I grinned back.

"Hey," I greeted back, leaning against the wall behind me and taking a cursory look around the room, "nice place you've got here."

He set the CDs down and turned to look at me fully, mirroring me by crossing his arms across his chest. I just grinned a bit in response and he cocked an eyebrow. Embry had disappeared into the kitchen and I immagined he was stuffing his face with chips or something like that. Paul stood there, staring at me expectantly before dropping his arms and sighing dramatically. "Is that all I'm going to get?" he asked. "I mean, I put up streamers for you." I looked up, and indeed there were streamers hanging from his ceiling. I almost laughed at the mental image of Paul taking them down later. Anyone who knew him knew he wouldn't have the patience to do it.

"That's all your going to get," I taunted. His eyes sparked at the familar teasing. Instead of letting that spark in his eyes get us both into trouble, I lifted my duffle from the floor. "I need some place to change."

He grinned and led me down the hall that branched off from his living room. The hallway had a bunch of spooky signs on all the doors, and the lights had been shaded over to create an eerie glow. He opened one door and led me inside with a slightly predatory grin. It was my turn to cock an eyebrow as he held the door open and gestured for me to go in first. I did, and heard the door click behind me. I turned to see Paul, glaring slightly at Embry, who was holding a plate of pretzels and munching on them next to him.

"Umm, boys?" They both looked at me. "I have to get changed." They nodded in understanding. I waited for a moment before trying again. "That means I have to take off my clothes." They nodded again, this time, smirking a bit. I quirked an eyebrow at both of them and made another attempt. "That means I'll be naked." This time, Embry nodded eagerly, grinning ear from ear while looked at me like, 'and that's a bad thing because...?' "Get the fuck out!"

Paul turned to Embry. "You heard the lady. Out, you pervert," he said and opened the door, pushing Embry out. Some of Embry's pretzels spilled off his plate, distracting him enough for Paul to effectively get him out the door with very little struggle.

"No, fair, I want to see!" Embry said, shoving his way against the door. Paul growled a little and braced his back against the door. And let's face it. Paul is a lot stronger than most of the other pack members, not to mention the second tallest. He had an advantage. I heard Embry slam his shoulder into the door and saw the side spliter a little bit at the pressure.

"Embry, if you break my door," Paul said through gritted teeth, back still against the door, "you will be paying for the repairs."

I heard Embry huff from outside the door, and just before he let it shut, I heard him yell, "Your girlfriend's got the hots for me!" And then the door slammed in his face.

I giggled at that. That was such an Embry thing to do. Paul turned to me and gestured for me to continue. "You're not staying in here," I told him, eyebrow raised at the very audacity that he thought I would let him. He whimpered, but I held fast, looking at his forehead instead of his eyes and remembered one of the rules of winning an argument. _'If you don't break first, you always win.'_ "Out!" I ordered.

"But I got rid of Embry for you," he protested, "I think that deserves something."

I grinned, and shook my head. "Nope, not a damn thing, you pervert." I stalked past him and opened the door, gesturing for him to leave. Embry was still out there, and when the door opened, he widened his eyes at me, a pretzel hanging halfway out of his mouth and gave me one of the most adorable puppy-dog pouts I've ever seen. It was almost better than Paul's. It actually might have been better if Paul wasn't my imprint. But I shook my head, and turned back to Paul, holding the door open, and gesturing for him to get out. He whimpered, but left as I told him to. He stopped next to Embry and turned to give me one final puppy face. I just shut the door on both of them.

"I was making real headway until your ugly ass got in the way," I heard Embry grumble and then they both thumped down the hallway, obviously put out by the lack of peepshow. I giggled and laid the duffle on the plain grey comforter on the bed and unzipped it in one fluid motion. I pulled out my costume and giggled. Halloween was going to be fun.

While I was getting dressed, I heard the door open and close repeatedly, but never did I hear a knock or a doorbell ring. Jeez, no decorum at all. I fixed my dress in the mirror, and then opened the door just a crack and yelled, "Paul! Get your cute little ass over here!"

"My ass is cuter!"

Paul was already halfway down the hallway. "You wish, Call!" he called back, and I held the door open before slamming it shut so no one would get a peek at my costume. Paul walked over to the closet, casually taking off his shirt - I got a nice shut of his yummy abs - and reaching inside the blackened depths and pulling out a mask and a ripped shirt, which he put on. The holes were large and the t-shirt was tight fitting so I'd be getting continuous eye-fulls of delicious bronze skin, all toned and... Well, you get my point. Before he pulled on the mask, he came over to me and embraced me, bringing my face close to his. "Do I get my hello now?"

In answer, I stood a little taller on my tip toes and wrapped my arms around his neck in order to touch my lips to his softly. He showed signs of wanting to make the kiss a little deeper, but I pulled back before he could, grinning wickedly at his pout. "You're sexy."

"But not irresistable, apparently," he said with an over-exagerated sigh, "huh, I guess I'll just have to live with it." His hands trailed up my sides, nearly brushing against my breast, but he was a gentle man and removed his hands, lest he be tempted. "You however, look absolutely beautiful, my dear. I could just eat you up."

I took the mask from his hands, and bent up to slide it over his head until his eyes peeked through the holes to meet mine. "Please do," I said in a sultry sort of voice, running my fingers over an exposed portion of his pectorals. I felt it when his heart beat jumped a little bit and pounded harder and a little bit faster. I laid my hand directly over his heart, liking the way his warmth felt against me, and leaned in to rest my head against his chest for a moment, listening to the rythmic thumping. Paul tensed ever so slightly.

"I was only half-kidding."

Paul's voice was low and husky. I liked the sound of it, but I did recognize that the tone was different than the one before. "Oh," I said simply, my eyebrows crinkling in confusion. But then I got it. _"OH!"_

I backed up a little suddenly, nearly running into the bed as I did so. I couldn't see the look on his face, but the gleam in his eye said exactly what he was feeling right now, and it wasn't exactly clean nor appropriate for children. It also made me feel hot and bothered, which bothered me in another way too. I mean, yeah, I really liked Paul - I ignored the part of my mind that said _love_ - but we hadn't been dating that long. Soul mates or not, I just didn't think I was ready for that. "Mhmm," I said, turning away from him and going to grab the door knob.

His voice made me pause. "I'm not trying to pressure you, Syd. You know I'd never do that. But I'm not going to hide or apologize for my feelings either."

I took a deep breath and turned to look at him. His eyes were still trained on me, but he had an unfair advantage in this situation - his face was still covered, but mine displayed my feelings like a marque. "I know," I finally said, letting a small smile fall into place. "If you tried to hide it, you wouldn't be the man I fell in love with at all, and if you apologized... well, that would be like saying, 'Sorry that I love you.' And I'm not sorry I love you."

"I could never be sorry for loving you, Sydney," he said, and I could hear the fond smile in his voice, even if I couldn't see it. He took a couple long strides and opened the door. We didn't have to say anything else; all that needed saying was resolved in that short silence. Paul took my hand, leading me down the hallway and to the party for a night of enjoyment and fun with friends. I smiled as we walked into the living room where most pack members were already spread out, listening to music, dancing in Kim and Claire's case and playing random board games.

Paul and I stood in the doorway, hand in hand, waiting for the others to notice us. The first to notice the two of us was Collin, who had been stuffing carrots in his nose, and this was closely followed by Brady to see what the hell his friend was gaping at. Slowly, everyone turned to look at us, all in shocked silence. Finally, Leah broke the silence.

"Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf? Really?"

Embry decided to add onto this with, "Looks like Big Bad's not just after the goodies in Red's _basket_ after all."

I can't even describe how much my hand hurt after I hit him, but let me put it this way; there was enough force behind my punch to break four of my fingers and fracture two bones in my hand - and enough force to make Paul chase him out of the house and hurl him into several trees. That almost made the six weeks worth of wearing the cast worth it.

At the end of the night, when they'd already splinted me up and Embry had been beaten to a pulp until Paul was satisfied, I ended up standing next to Leah, drinking what Paul called Spider Cider. I'm not sure why he calls it that, and I don't think I want to know either. Leah and I were watching Claire take on Embry in an intense game of Dance Dance revolution when she turned to me. "But seriously, Red Riding Hood? I thought you would be so much more original."

"You're just mad because we match."

-Forever His-

My house was going to be the big meeting place for Thanksgiving this year, and mom couldn't be happier. Sarah and Emily had actually both stayed the night so that they could all start on the dinner first thing in the morning. Well, alls I can say is 'yay' because from the time I woke up this morning, the whole house smelled delicious, and that is a pleasant thing to wake up to. However, as soon as I made it known that I was alive _and_ had not been eaten by my bed in the middle of the night, I was put straight to work. They had me slicing veggies and prepping pans for baking - neither or which were hard if you weren't crippled, but with my hand... yeah, they were a little difficult.

They kicked me out of the kitchen when I dropped the knife and it almost landed on Kim's foot. Then I was assigned to keep the boys away from the kitchen. A job I was much more suited for, I must say. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I got to slap Collin with a wooden spoon.

Other pack members showed up throughout the day, all slowly migrating towards the food source. Leah, Sue and Charlie all showed up with little offerings to add to the table themselves, which was awesome. Leah brought honey rolls and Sue brought a type of casserole that smelled so wonderful, I was kind of surprised Quil didn't bite her arm off when he carried the three platters of it into the kitchen for her.

The boys all crowded into spaces on our couch, making a show of watching the game and Claire joined them, surely just for the sake of not being made to help - or possibly, to check out cute football players' butts. Not that I could blame her, whichever might be true. If I could put it past my mom, I'd be doing the same thing. Not checking out butts, of course. I already have a cute butt to check out; I don't need another. I already feel guilty for having Paul all to myself.

Well, no, not guilty. Not at all.

The boys in the living room let out a cheer that rattled in my bones. After that quieted, I could swear I heard... Brady singing a victory song, claiming that Quil owed him twenty bucks. It was the kind of _nah-nah-nah-nah-nah_ song that would be embarassing if it wasn't so funny.

The doorbell rang - _OHMIGODFREY, they know how to use one!_ - and I jumped up to grab the door, slapping Collin with my good hand when he tried to sneak past me and into the kitchen. He whimpered, but sat back down on the couch like a good boy. I smirked. Even with a broken hand, I was badass. I opened the door and Billy and Jake stood in the doorway, Billy holding a serving dish covered with tin foil in his lap and Jake pushing his father around. I also saw Kim and Brady's parents behind them. "Hey Jake, Billy!" I greeted, suddenly feeling bad that our home wasn't more wheel-chair accessible. Jake had probably had to carry him up those steps. "C'mon in. Dinner's in about an hour."

I played door prop while Jake rolled Billy in. Billy offered the dish to me. "Black family recipe for sweet bread. Goes great with pie for desert." I smiled and took the dish, and Jake rolled his eyes, rolling the tribe elder into the living room with the other testosterone-laden males. I felt it kind of ironic that they celebrated Thanksgiving, as sick as it was to even think it. Erin and George also brought their own dish to add to the feast.

Finally, the only three missing were Paul, Embry and oddly enough, my father. This combination left me worried.

My brothers had joined the montage of men - and Claire - and I could hear them yelling nonsensical things at the TV while the others cheered or groaned with the game. "C'mon, Ref, call that bean-poll on his bad manners!" I heard one of them yell - and that's a direct quote.

I heard the door open just before another cheer sounded from the men, but it quickly cut off into silence. I had been sitting in a chair at the entrance of the kitchen, sneaking little tastes of the homemade whipped cream, but at the quick cut-off, I looked around at the others girls who infested the kitchen - oh, and Seth, who was peeling with Leah and they all looked at each other in bewilderment too.

The first thing I heard was the sound of Leo and Raf laughing softly, which was then joined by several other, deeper laughs. Curious, I hopped off my chair and migrated toward the living room to see what could possibly so funny. I heard the others dropping their cooking supplies in order to do the same. I entered the living room to find several pack members nearly rolling on the ground in their laughter - or actually rolling on the ground in Quil's case - and looked toward the other entrance to the living room.

The sight before me had me bursting into manic giggles too.

Apparently, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, Embry, Paul and my father had decided it would be appropriate to dress up. My dad, who is only half Native-American, was dressed as a pilgrim, from funny hat to buckled shoes, and holding a gun against his shoulder. Paul was dressed as an Indian, complete with buck-skin pants, body and face paint, a braided wig and a bow and arrows slung onto his back. They both looked funny enough, but the funniest part of the whole deal was standing between them, and that was Embry, dressed as a giant Turkey.

I was nearly crying and I could hear the other girls starting to laugh along with me as they filed in. Embry did not look like he was enjoying himself, though both my father and my boyfriend looked pretty pleased. My mother was wiping tears from her face when she broke the little clump we women - and Seth - had made, and approached my father.

"My darling, I have brought you a hearty Turkey to prepare for our peaceful dinner with the Indians!" he declared.

Paul elbowed Embry in the side, prompting him to let out a sour "gobble gobble" before moving past him towards me. I expected him to reach out for me and smother me against him, smearing his body paint on me, but he didn't. Rather, he said something I couldn't understand in the Quileute language and waited for me to respond. When I didn't, he tried again. "You are Sydney, yes?" he said in a thick accent, which almost made me giggle, but I wanted to play along so I clamped my lips together and nodded. "Your father has promised me your hand in order to ensure that we can live peacefully."

My dad dropped the act and said, "Hey! I promised no hands!"

My mom laughed in return, slapping his shoulder. "Oh, Jed, its not a big deal. He's just playing around. We're not actually going to eat Embry either. He's too skinny. We'd be chewing for hours." She grabbed his hand and led him back to the kitchen. "Here, come taste some of the fried yams. That will make you feel better."

Paul looked back at me with a stupid grin and I rolled my eyes in return. "How do I look?" he asked.

"You'd look hotter without the wig and body paint."

He yanked the wig off his head, touseling the short spikes, and looked at me. "Would you like to lick it off? It's edible. Unlike Embry's skinny ass."

Embry paused from where he was stripping the turkey costume off and looked over at the two of us, eyes narrowed. I stared back, expectantly, wondering just what kind of come back he'd have to that. Finally, his glare turned into a smirk and he continued taking off the turkey costume. "Nice to know you've been looking, Paul." And then he wiggled his ass a little when he pulled the pants of the suit down.

-Forever His-

Pack birthdays, are, apparently a big thing, always. Paul and Jared were both born in late November, and Jared's birthday party had been big. Tonight was Paul's, and if possible, it was even bigger. It was his twenty-first and all those who were old enough had a beer in hand, including Paul. Not that I had to worry about any of them getting rip-roaring drunk - their metabolisms were killer fast and their body heat tended to burn it off quicker than they could consume it. The most any of them would feel was a slight buzz.

I, however, being the lowly eighteen year-old and the fourth youngest member of the pack, was not allowed to have any and was put in charge of keeping anyone else under twenty-one from drinking as well. Why they chose me, I'm not positive. I mean, its not like it was hard to distinguish who was okay to drink and who wasn't. Sam, Emily, Leah, Paul and Jared were allowed to drink. The rest of us weren't. Simple as that. Jacob, Embry and Kim are nineteen, Quil, Seth and I are eighteen, Collin and Brady are seventeen, and Claire is the smallest of all, being a mere sixteen. Well, smallest if you don't count Mick and Nick.

Embry did keep trying to sneak past me, though, and I kept wacking him with my good hand. Maybe that was why they chose me.

The party ended surprisingly early for a pack party, and I was shocked that I only had to keep Embry in check. I knew for a fact that if one of them had managed to get past me, for most, it wouldn't have been their first beer. Brady's dad occasionally gave him some in order to relax him after patrol, because that's all it would do. They had a stressful job.

I was less surprised when Kim and Claire demanded I come with them to play as their human doll for the night afterwards... except, it seemed like they had a goal in mind, and they weren't just primping me for their own personal enjoyment - which they'd done before, by the way.

My theory was confirmed when somebody - I expect it was Leah or possibly Embry - grabbed me from behind and blind-folded me. Good lord, they grabbed hard. I would definitely have a bruise to show for that random act of violence tomorrow. And before I could protest, they had me gagged too, reducing my righteously angry words to little miffed grunts. They also tied my hands behind my back. I was ready to kill them all! They also picked me up and towed me around a bit, leading me to a vehicle of some type - presumably, Embry's taco-mobile - and shoved me in, ignoring my moans to set me free.

My kidnapper and I drove around a bit, and I knew Claire and Kim hadn't joined us because I couldn't hear the tell-tale signs of their giggling; the only sounds came from outside and the occasional sound of breathing from the front seat. I made all sorts of witty jokes about how quiet it was. 'Cept, no one could understand them, so there was no point.

Finally, the car rolled to a stop, and I heard the dialing of a cell-phone and Embry - ha! I knew it - talking to someone on the other end. Great, he was going to take his dear sweet time while I was loosing circulation in my hands. And a bad case of cotton mouth.

Embry pressed the phone to my ear and yanked the gag out of my mouth. I was sucking in breath for a good rant when Claire's voice piped up from the other line. "Hey, Sydney, if you get any of Embry's blood on that dress, you become my personal barbie doll, indefinitely." That shut me up pretty fast. "Glad we got that clear. Bye, babes, have fun!" And then Embry hung up and started helping me down from the car, releasing my hands, but keeping the blind-fold where it was.

Embry led me around by the arm, taking me up a couple steps and then steering me to the side. "You look really nice, Sydney," he said.

I grumbled a little. "I would say the same, but you know," I used my free hand to point to my blindfold, "I have no idea what either of us looks like right now... Or why you haven't been arrested for kidnapping, for that matter."

"That's probably because you aren't putting up much of a struggle, Sydney."

That wasn't Embry's voice. No, Embry's voice didn't make my heart swell a little bit and butterflies fill my stomach. Embry's voice didn't make me fell too hot all over. And Embry's voice definitely didn't set me on fire. No one's did, except for Paul's. And all of a sudden, Embry wasn't there any more. His arm had left mine and I couldn't smell his cologne anymore. There was, however a hand, warm and rough, grasping mine. I wanted to say something romantic, I really did, but alls that came out was, "Can you take the damn blindfold off now?"

Paul laughed, but released my hand and very gently plucked the piece of material from my eyes. He was grinning, his brown eyes sparkling playfully. I couldn't help but return that beautiful smile, despite my earlier annoyance. The green flecks in his eyes were out in force, due to the forest green shirt he wore under his black suit coat.

He moved slightly out of my line of vision, and I noticed that we were in a park for the first time. And behind Paul was a pagoda with a dining table set in the center with several little candles and twinkle lights to light it up. Paul took my hand again. "I couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday than to spend a special evening with you." He said, bringing my hand up to kiss my knuckles, but I was still mesmerized by the sight before me. "Use your people words, babe," he chuckled.

"Wow."

"Good one," he said with another laugh, finally leading me forward and pulling out my chair for me when we sat down. I smiled, realizing that tonights course was chicken parm - one of my favorites. But, of course, Paul knew that. The sides were bread sticks and some pasta. I felt like I was at the Olive Garden. I also had a wine flute with a redish liquid in it. I picked it up and raised an eyebrow at Paul. He rolled his eyes. "Just try it."

I glanced around, almost on instinct, looking for some authority figure or other before taking a sip and promptly giving Paul an unamused look. "It's cranapple juice, you retard."

Paul chuckled and shook his head. "Silly little minor; thought I'd give you real alcohol. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I did that?"

I rolled my eyes, bringing my glass up to my lips to take another sip. He smiled in return and we began our meal. It was a lot of fun. We hadn't had too much alone time recently, what with him patrolling and practically running two businesses and me being in school. We still saw each other a lot, don't get me wrong, but it was always in the presence of one pack member or another. Most often, Seth. With Leah's words in mind, I tried to keep things normal in front of him without showing off my relationship or making Paul suspicious. However, I now noticed how every time Paul kissed me or hugged me or held my hand, Seth's jaw or hands would tighten, and the muscles in his neck would stand out a little more.

Paul began to fidget with his napkin about halfway through my meal; he'd stopped eating a while ago, which I found suspicious to the max. I mean, a werewolf not chomping down on anything edible in sight? Weird...

Even with this in mind, it surprised me when he got up and shocked me when he got down on one knee.

I gulped. He wasn't... No, he couldn't be...

He smiled at me nervously. "Sydney Christopher LeHaye," he said, voice cracking a little bit on my middle name, "I love you so very much, and there's a very serious question that I have been considering asking for sometime that I really, really want an answer to." He took a deep breath and I could feel my eyes wanting to pop out of my head. Oh, my fucking Godfrey, he was going to do it. "Would you... still date me if I was this tall?"

It took me a couple seconds to register what he actually said, and then another couple second to break into shocked, slightly hysterical giggles. "You scared the hell out of me," I managed to get out between my giggles.

I was thankful he didn't seem offended by my reaction or my words. He cracked a grin at me, but didn't push up off the ground like I thought he would. No, rather, he grabbed my hand and his expression turned to one of intensity. "I really do love you, Sydney, and no, I didn't bring you here to propose to you. I know you think its all too new to get serious like that, even if we are destined to be together. So, though I know you're not ready to marry me yet, and may not be ready to marry me for many years, I wanted to know," he paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and digging into his pocket, "if you would wear my class ring?"

He pulled out a ring with an onyx stone and the year he graduated out of his pocket. The band was silver, and extremely thick, but had obviously already been resized to fit one of my fingers. It was a thoughtful gesture, and represented a commitment; not a serious one, but a commitment none the less.

And this was a commitment I was ready to make.

I held out my hand in answer, and I saw his eyes light up. He slid it onto my ring finger and kissed my knuckles again before standing up and bringing me with him. He wrapped his arms around me, snuggling his face into the crook of my neck, and I heard him mutter, "Best birthday ever."

-Forever His-

So, you know that poem, The Night Before Christmas? Well, if you don't, the beginning goes a little something like this.

_T'was the night before Christmas,  
__And all through the house,  
Not a creature was stirring,  
Not even a mouse._

Let me just say, that poem? Yeah, it lies! Big time. You want an unpeaceful Christmas eve? Spend it at Sam and Emily's. Good lord. Mick and Nick were up all night, and Quil had drank way too much hot chocolate and kept stepping on Seth on his way to the bathroom. The winner of the Lonely Loveseat was Jake and he kept rolling off and landing on Leah, who made it known she did not appreciate it. Collin was in the guest room and had chosen to keep it all to himself leaving Brady on the floor, and Embry kept kicking him. Kim and Claire were on the pull out and Paul had won the recliner once more, leaving Jared and I on the floor nearby, which was kind of awkward, truth be told, since they'd ran out of blankets, due to Claire and Kim's inability to share one - they were both blanket hogs - and Collin not having anyone to share with, so Jared and I were the ones forced to share.

I would have shared with Embry, but I already knew that he tended to kick in his sleep, and figured Jared's slight snoring the least of the hazards of sharing a room with this many people.

It took me forever to finally nod off, and when I finally did, it wasn't long before Nick's powerful lungs had me up again. I sighed, snuggling into the floor. The floor rumbled in return. It took me a second in my slightly dazed state to remember that floors don't generally react to you... or radiate heat.

I opened my eyes and found myself on top of a toned chest covered by a thin black t-shirt. Now, this would have freaked me out normally, since I'd fallen asleep next to Jared, but before I could even kind of start panicking, I remembered that Jared had been wearing white. Who'd been wearing black? Paul hadn't, nor had Seth or Embry - and those were my best choices.

I couldn't hold off on looking up to see who I was sleeping on top of any longer, so I slowly, shifted my head up and off the chest to look up.

It was Jake. I was asleep on top of Jake. It was Jake's chest I was lying on.

Why the hell was I on top of Jake?

I looked around the room to see if there was any sign as to how I had come to be on top of Jake, and when I turned, my eyes were met with Leah's. I nearly screamed, but before I could, she clamped a hand over my mouth and held a single finger up to her lips; "Shhhh! Don't wake him up!"

Leah removed her hand after a moment and waited to see if I was going to scream again. I wasn't going to. It had just kind freaked me out that she had been _right there _when I turned around. I looked at her he expectantly, waiting for her to explain why I was laying on her alpha's chest. Apparently, my eyes didn't convey the memo. "Um, Leah... Why am I on Jake?"

The early morning light that was starting to filter through the window illuminated her eyeroll beautifully. "He kept rolling off the couch and landing on me, but I noticed that he stopped moving in his sleep when he came in contact with something. So, I picked you up, laid you on him, and what do you know, boy hasn't moved since." Leah gave a slight giggle. "It's kind of funny really. And whenever you shift, he makes this little rumble noise... it's kinda cute."

"I'm sure my boyfriend will have the same opinion," I said sarcastically.

And then, with abandon and ignoring Leah's pleas for me not to move, I jumped off Jake, straightening myself up and stepping over unconscious bodies in order to get to the kitchen. I heard Leah's frustrated groan after a hard _thunk! _on the ground, and smirked to myself. Serves her right.

A couple hours later saw me and the pack passing out gifts to one another. I was amazed by the presents I got. Claire, Quil, Jared and Kim had all pitched in and gotten Paul and I tickets to freaking Linkin Park in the pit! I can honestly say I'm glad I shared a blanket with Jared for half the night last night. Great man, he is. Leah had taken it upon herself to make sure her and Seth were the ones to get me the outfit for this event, including a black leather jacket, a red flowy shirt and tight dark wash jeans, paired up with an awesome pair of high-heeled boots. Freakin' fabulous!

Embry gave me socks. I was honestly about to hit him with them until I felt the extra weight in the right toe of the music note ones and pulled out three pairs of earrings. I then apologized and gave him a hug. Collin and Brady had gotten me a booklet on hairstyles and how to do them at home, as well as every possible pin, clip and hair tie on the market.

I think Sam and Emily were trying to be funny, but they booked a whole bunch of us on these forest tours that are supposed to have all sorts of supernatural happenings. As a seperate gift, Emily also gave me several new pictures that had been taken with the pack since my birthday, including several from the holidays - haha! I got one where we'd made Embry put the turkey suit back on at Thanksgiving! There were also some of me playing with Nick and Mick. I especially liked the one where I had one baby in each arm and they were both giving me messy baby kisses.

Jake went simple and gave me a couple band tees and a hoodie.

Paul's gift was unexpected, because, again, he had me open his last. And you wanna know what I got? Freakin' backstage passes. To what? The Linkin Park concert. Oh my Godfrey, I just about died, and I did flip my lid. Paul enjoyed watching me run around like a mad woman.

After opening presents with the pack, we had Christmas breakfast - cinnamon rolls! - and I had to go home and have Christmas with my parents and brothers. Paul drove me, of course.

My parents, as always, gave me awesome gifts, and my brothers were total sweeties about what they gave me, but I can't exactly remember what they were anymore. I was far too frightened at the gift that had been left at the foot of my bed. It had caught me off guard. My bed was perfectly made, and at the edge sat a little black box with white ribbon and no card. I figured it would be a little pair of earrings from my mom, or something.

It wasn't.

I slowly slipped the silky white ribbon from the top of the box and carefully lifted the top off in case what was inside was fragile. That was when I was assaulted with the sight of several pictures, ripped, cut up, drawn on and defaced in every way imaginable. Some of them were in confetti like pieces, but they all had the same subject. As I pulled each picture out, I realized with increasing fear that in each and every whole picture I took out, Paul should be right beside me in the frame, but he was missing. I didn't see anything about Paul until I got to the bottom where there were pictures of his face ripped in half and splattered with what looked like blood.

When I finally emptied the box of all the horrible pictures, there was a note left at the bottom.

_Dearest Sydney,_

_I do hope you're enjoying your holidays. You sure seem to be well. But I know you Sydney, and I know you aren't really happy, and you won't be truly happy until we're back together, as it should be. In every picture of you, I can see the longing in your eyes, though your supposed "love" is standing right by your side. It's a sick act, darling._

_Don't worry, I shall soon relieve you of any need to pretend with him, and we shall be together again._

_Just as it was meant._

_My Love Everlasting,_  
_Cade_

It wasn't the note that frightened me. It wasn't even the not-so-subtle threat to Paul's life that was bothering me. No, what scared me most of all was that this man - this bloodsucking creature - this murderer - had been in my house, with my family, where he could have done anything, and none of us would have been able to stop him. That was the scariest part of all.

I sat at the edge of my bed, staring at the pictures for what seemed like hours before throwing them all back in the little box, closing the lid and throwing it in the trashcan in the corner of my room.

Why couldn't this just be over already?

* * *

**A/N: So, I realize you don't want to hear me ramble, especially after I made you all wait for so long, and I am so sorry about that. However, I tried to make up for it with a fairly long chapter, lots of fluff and funny and a bit of actual plot line. Whoo!**

**So, I know its not fair of me to be asking favors, especially after the ten month wait I put you all through, but would you please review? Tell me what you liked? What you disliked? Did you think Paul's fake proposal was funny? I need to know. Please, for a starving writer? I'd sure appreciate it.**

**Madly Yours,  
Jassabella**


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